The leaders of the 26 NATO member states convened in the North-Atlantic Council on Wednesday morning. In the meeting's opening, NATO  Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and President Basescu delivered a speech followed by a ceremony of paying homage to the troops of the Alliance's member countries.

Croatia and Albania are expected to be officially invited to join the Alliance, within the North-Atlantic Council.
 An evening before, NATO's spokesman James Appathurai announced there was a consensus among the Alliance members as regards the accession of two countries, Albania and Croatia, but in the case of Macedonia, the fact that Greece is opposed to this country's joining the Alliance as long as the problem of the country's name is not solved, is known.
For the time being there is consensus for two out of the three candidate countries. Greece said clearly it will veto the entry of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as long as the issue of this country's name is not resolved, said Appathurai, referring to the themes discussed the working  dinner of the heads of state and government of NATO member states, held at the Cotroceni Palace.
The NATO Summit in Bucharest started on Wednesday evening convened in a working dinner hosted by Romania's President Traian Basescu at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace for the heads of the delegations attending the Bucharest NATO Summit, April 2-4.