The Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that the enlargement of the alliance with countries from West Balkan will strengthen NATO and secure the peace and stability in the Balkan region. “NATO played a key role in the resolution of the armed conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s. We are still facing many challenges, but it is good that we have member-states like Croatia, Albania and Montenegro, and hopefully from next year onwards, North Macedonia,” Stoltenberg said before the meeting of NATO Defence Ministers on Thursday, in which DM Radmila Sekerinska will take part on behalf of Macedonia for the first time.