Before the beginning of the summit, the American president Bush said that NATO would make a historic decision on the admission of three Balkan nations: Croatia, Albania and Macedonia; and that the United States strongly supported inviting these nations to join NATO.
峰会开始前，美国总统布什说，北约将做出一项历史性决定，关于三个巴尔干国家——克罗地亚，阿尔巴尼亚和马其顿——的准入权，而美国也会大力支持邀请这些国家加入北约。