Bosnia’s Defense Minister said on Tuesday that she had hoped NATO would activate the Membership Action Plan for Bosnia before last week’s summit in Brussels but that although it didn’t, this could soon happen.

“It is a matter of days when the MAP will be activated,” Pendes told N1. “I believe this will happen in 2018.”

NATO launched the Membership Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2010 after the country applied for membership a year earlier. However, it set conditions the country has still not fulfilled.

It requested that the ownership over 63 military facilities throughout the country be transferred from Bosnia’s semi-autonomous regions to the central government.

The Government of the Bosnian Serb semi-autonomous entity within the country opposed this transfer as it saw the move as a loss of autonomy.

Bosnian Serbs leaders also said they will block Bosnia's membership until Serbia joins the military alliance.

Pendes said the transfer of property was supposed to be a technical question but it turned into a political. She said that the activation of the MAP does not mean the country will immediately become NATO member.

“People misinterpret the MAP. Macedonia was invited to join but before that, it had 18 MAPS,” she said.

“Activating a MAP does not mean Bosnia and Herzegovina will tomorrow be NATO member,” she explained.

Pendes added that nobody should be opposing the membership because “investing in NATO is investing in the security of every family.”