UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A CNN viewer wants to know: who are the candidates are being consider for NATO membership?</s>ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Right now, there are nine countries which are seeking membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. They include: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania and Macedonia. Lithuania is the most advanced in terms of reaching NATO's military standards, while Latvia and Estonia are next in line. NATO's three newest members, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, were all included in the first enlargement, back in 1999. Two of those three, Hungary and Poland, have among the strongest growth rates in all of Europe.
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