BRUSSELS \u2014\u00a0Montenegrin officials\u00a0say\u00a0that despite the fierce objections of Russia, they are\u00a0optimistic that their country will be invited to join NATO, possibly by the end of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its accession to the Western military alliance would mark the first expansion of NATO’s ranks in ex-Communist Eastern Europe since Montenegro’s neighbou<\/span>rs, Albania and Croatia, joined in 2009.\u00a0It also would become the first new addition to NATO since relations between Russia and the West cooled over Russia’s intervention in Ukraine’s 2014 revolution\u00a0and the ongoing\u00a0bitter conflict there which is still ongoing<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One Brussels-based diplomat said Montenegro’s accession would send a message to Moscow that it “cannot halt NATO’s expansion.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ambassadors of NATO’s North Atlantic Council met in Montenegro’s capital,\u00a0Podgorica, on Thursday in what some see as the latest signal of NATO’s resolve to usher the tiny Adriatic republic of 650,000 people into its ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US has signaled its support for the accession of the former Yugoslav republic, and Montenegrin Foreign Minister Igor Luk\u0161i\u0107 said he believes the conditions exist for NATO’s 28 members to decide, perhaps as soon as December, to invite Montenegro to join.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, a NATO source said that any invitation would depend on Montenegro making further progress on reforms to tackle corruption and improve the rule of law, and ensuring public support in the country, where opinion polls suggest only a narrow majority support entering NATO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many ethnic Serbs in Montenegro, like their kin in Serbia, fiercely oppose joining NATO.\u00a0It was 16 years ago that NATO members struck targets in Montenegro during an 11-week air war to drive security forces under Serbian strongman Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107 from Serbia’s then-southern province of Kosovo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n