Macedonia has fulfilled all the criteria and has proven its commitment to the Alliance by actively participating in NATO missions. Macedonia should be invited to NATO on basis on their merits.

In addition, the ICJ ruled that Greece has no legal basis to block Macedonia.

Time to finish the unfinished business from Bucharest 2008!

NATO needs to stop invading countries illegally under the pretense of helping people.It is all about containing China and little do do with bringing peace to the planet.

We should be working closer with China,Russia and India to bring about peaceful solutions instead of this war mongering by NATO.It is not in our National interest to make and enemy of our biggest trading partner China.

I totally agree, this is not a time to put a pause on NATO enlargement. Especially in the case of the Republic of Macedonia. Greece's ridiculous claims against this great ally of Australia (and NATO) is unfounded and should immediately be dismissed

The Australian government has only recently removed the Slav Macedonian identifier to refer to ethnic Macedonians, the next logical step is for Australia to recognise Macedonia under their constitutional name and support Macedonia's integration into NATO.

The ruling of the International Court of Justice which found 15 to 1 in favour of Macedonia's right to join international institutions using its constitutional name, noting that the 1 vote against was an Ethnic Greek demonstrates the right of each country and its Citizens to self-identify as they see fit and is a basic right of one’s self identification.

Should Macedonia not be allowed to join NATO in the upcoming summit it demonstrates the corruption and double standards employed by such organisations. If Macedonia who has troops deployed in Afghanistan in joint missions with NATO cannot be permitted into NATO, then NATO should withdraw all Macedonian troops and send them home. If Macedonian soldiers can die under the NATO flagship then they should do so knowing Macedonia is a NATO member and recognised and the Constitutional name the Republic of Macedonia.

In reality the only stumbling block to NATO membership is Greece, a country so corrupt that the so called cradle of democracy ignores basic human rights for all minorities, including Macedonians, Vlachs, Albanians and Turks and at the same time through lies and corruption entered the Euro Zone by manipulating government figures in a bid to obtain funding from the EU. An EU who is now hostage to Greece and her stumbling debt problems and corruption which as most would know has led to a credit squeeze and general downturn in EU GDP figures.

Only Logical step is for Macedonia to take its rightful place as a member of NATO and for member states VETO's (like Greece) be ignored between disputes between two nations when the International Court of Justice has ruled emphatically in favour of one party.

It is time the greater powers who influence world structure and decisions to take a general stance and apply the same rules to all aspiring countries who wish to enter these organizations and not be selective in the manner which they accept them.

We have a country like Macedonia which is and has been knocking at the door to enter these organisations for a while yet havent been fully excepted even though they have forfilled all obligations and prerequisites to gain entry , this double standard needs to be rectified and Macedonia deserves its position in these organisations and needs to be treated fairly like all other candidates and countries which are in these organisations.

These organisations are supposed to be democratic, non discriminative, equal opportunity for all countries however this appears not to be the case and this seriously questions the motives and intergrity of these organisations.

All Balkan countries who meet the criteria should and need to be excepted in order to keep stability in this area and with these inclusions these countries all have alot to contribute.

Justice needs to prevail and Macedonia must be excepted.

Supporter of justice

It should be Australia's preeminent foreign policy goal this year to harness Australia's considerable weight in NATO to further the NATO aspirations of a country essential to Australia's defence and foreign policy - Macedonia.

…It’s the age old question of “what’s in a name”? Along with the Catholic Church, here is another ancient residual issue stemming from the grand old days of the Roman Empire.

…Australia still recognises the republic of Macedonia as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", along with Greece! Most countries (with the exception of Greece, all neighbouring countries in particular), accept the “Republic of Macedonia”, including the USA and China.

...As the argument between Macedonia and Greece (over a name) grinds on, the world watches and waits for this stupidity to be resolved between the two countries: And Greece continues to veto calls for Macedonias entry into NATO, against the backdrop of a 1995 UN accord, which prohibits Greece from doing so.

...This "costic" interaction continues to exacerbate relations on the issue of NATO membership; and to the outside world, the “Mexican stand-off” between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia over a name, appears absurdly unnecessary!