what’s NATO’s membership action plan? is it same as candidate status of European union?
what steps should country follow after getting MAP in order to join NATO?
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Sort of, the country that wants to join NATO makes a request. If the current NATO members are open to that country joining, they will offer the Membership Action Plan. Since accession to NATO requires all current members to agree, it makes sense that they also need to give their preliminary approval.
The MAP itself requires the aspirant country to show their progress, mostly on being able to defend oneself as best as it can, but also about being compatible in procedures, legislation and the like. It also allows current NATO members to send experts in multiple fields to the aspiring country for improving their defence planning capabilities etc.
If the aspiring country fulfills all of the requirements it can send a formal application to the Secretary General of NATO and the NATO member states stating that it wants to join. All member countries can then decide in their own domestic procedures to approve or not approve that request, also on the basis of reports made as part of the MAP. By then this approval should be a formality and once each member state has completed it, they have an official celebration to welcome the new member state(s) and take a picture with every leader of the NATO member countries present.
MAPs are basically just a game plan that NATO issues to an aspirant country that isn’t immediately ready to actually join the alliance.
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