At the 2008 Bucharest summit , Greece vetoed the Republic of Macedonia 's invitation to join , however , NATO nations agreed that the country would receive an invitation upon resolution of the Macedonia naming dispute . Greece felt that its neighbor 's constitutional name implies territorial aspirations against its own region of Macedonia . After the veto , Greece was sued in the International Court of Justice , over the use of " the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia " as an acceptable option with which to enter NATO , while Greece counterargued that it was a collective decision of NATO not to invite the Republic of Macedonia , and therefore the interim accord signed between the two countries was not violated . Greece also considered blocking the Republic of Macedonia 's accession to the European Union over the naming dispute . Former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the Republic of Macedonia and Greece to find an " acceptable solution " to the dispute , so that the Republic of Macedonia would be free to join NATO . In 2014 , prior to the 65th anniversary of its founding , NATO announced that it would not be offering any new countries membership in the organization that year . Some analysts , such as Jorge Benitez of the Atlantic Council think tank , argued that this reluctance was partly due to the new security climate after Russia 's annexation of Crimea . There has been continued debate about how Russia will view the republic 's accession
2008 Bucharest summit
2008 Bucharest summit
Accession of North Macedonia to NATO