MOSCOW(Sputnik) – Serbia is not considering joining NATO, the country's Ambassador to Russia Slavenko Terzic said Friday.
"Serbia has no intention of joining NATO," Terzic told reporters, adding that "this issue is not being discussed in Belgrade."
Serbia was among the former Yugoslav republics to be invited to join NATO’s Partnership for Peace program – the alliance’s pre-membership program – in 2006.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia subsequently intensified their membership talks, and NATO formally invited Montenegro to join the military alliance in December 2015.
Montenegro’s invitation to become NATO’s 29th member is the first expansion of the US-led military bloc since it accepted Albania and Croatia in 2009.
Russia views NATO’s eastward expansion as a threat to its national security and a breach of the military bloc’s post-Soviet pledge not to encroach on Russian borders.
