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Editor's Note: Carlos Alberto Montaner is a writer and political analyst at CNN. His columns are published in dozens of newspapers in Spain, the United States and Latin America. Montaner is also vice president of the Liberal International.
(CNN Spanish) - The great irony is that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are condemned to face each other, despite the good personal relationship that both leaders have.
One of the reasons lies in the expansion of NATO. As it is an alliance of 29 countries, with great popular and institutional support, Trump cannot prevent other European nations from joining.
The next episode of tensions will be the future accession of North Macedonia to NATO.
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The Republic of North Macedonia is a small nation in northern Greece, essentially rural, with only 25,000 square kilometers and 2 million inhabitants, which was part of the disappeared Yugoslavia.
The only special distinction of Macedonia is that it is the homeland of Alexander the Great and gave rise to Hellenism.
Already the United States Senate gave its overwhelming approval to the admission of Macedonia into NATO.
The same thing happened with the incorporation of Montenegro into NATO in 2017. Russia will protest, will say that NATO continues with a Cold War mentality, but will do nothing.
Montenegro is also a tiny rural nation that emerged from the dissolution of Yugoslavia, but still with a smaller population of just 620,000 inhabitants.
Trump's argument that the countries of Europe take advantage of the goodwill of the United States and do not fulfill their economic responsibility is neither fair nor exact.
The truth is that since the end of World War II there have been no planetary conflicts, Washington became the head of the "free world" and the dollar in the currency preferred by almost everyone.
That, which has immensely favored the United States, is largely due to the existence of NATO, although President Donald Trump has a hard time admitting it.
NATO