President Trump signed a resolution on Tuesday approving Montenegro’s request to become a member of NATO, after the small Balkan nation cleared a key hurdle in the Senate last month.
“The NATO alliance has been central to ensuring peace and security on the European continent,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday.
Montenegro is the 29th country to join the Western military alliance. The country is expected to be represented at a meeting of NATO members in Brussels next month, which Trump is also set to attend.
Spicer said Montenegro’s presence will signal “to other NATO aspirants that the door to membership in the Euro-Atlantic community of nations remains open and that countries in the Western Balkans are free to choose their own future and select their own partners without outside interference or intimidation.”
“President Trump congratulates the Montenegrin people for their resilience and their demonstrated commitment to NATO’s democratic values,” he added.
The Senate voted 97-2 on March 28 to approve Montenegro’s bid to join NATO.
“If we turn down Montenegro, it will not remain the democracy that it is today,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said at the time.
