NATO invites Bosnia

NATO leaders on Friday urged Bosnia to begin the MAP programme that is a crucial stepping stone for eventual membership, but warned that more needed to be done to transfer military infrastructure to central authorities. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters at a meeting of the alliance's Foreign Ministers in Estonia that she hoped that the “membership action plan” would help Bosnia, a deeply divided country, to “function more effectively as a state”.

Membership action plans, or MAPs, establish criteria and guidelines for candidate-countries to become NATO members. Bosnia applied for an action plan last year.