The accession of Montenegro to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2017.
In December 2009, Montenegro was granted a Membership Action Plan, the final step in an application for membership in the organization.
A formal invitation was issued by the alliance on 2 December 2015, with accession negotiations concluded with the signature of an accession protocol in May 2016.
U.S. President Donald Trump recently signed the U.S. instrument of ratification for Montenegro’s accession to NATO.
Earlier the USA Senate overwhelmingly backed the expansion of NATO to allow Montenegro to join the alliance.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance (28 members) based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
Three NATO members (the United States, France and the United Kingdom) are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and are officially nuclear-weapon states.
NATO’s headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons.