STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BUSH: Moscow is not a question of if, but of when. (Paraphrased for the sake of clarity) Thursday June 14, 8:31 PM NATO commits to eastward enlargement in 2002 BRUSSELS, June 14 (AFP) - This week's NATO summit in Brussels sent a strong signal to nine ex-communist states lined up to join the alliance that they can expect their invitations for membership on schedule next year. Speaking here after the summit of NATO's 19 heads of state and government, the alliance secretary general, George Robertson, said more countries would be admitted at the next summit in Prague in November 2002. "Heads of state and government decided today that the 'zero option' (of inviting no candidate country to join the alliance) is off the table," he told reporters, suggesting that at least one country would become a member. But he stressed that the onus remains on the candidate states to bring their young democracies, their free-market economies and their erstwhile Soviet-era armed forces up to NATO standards. "No decisions were taken, and we did not discuss any question of who might be invited to join NATO in the future," he said. "Those countries which join NATO must be contributors of security, as well as consumers of security," he said. Waiting in line are Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia and Albania. The first former Soviet bloc states to join NATO, in March 1999, were Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. Czech President Vaclav Havel has been one of the few to specify who might be chosen. Havel affirmed there is a "general consensus" to invite Slovakia and Slovenia to join, and that "opinion to propose the adhesion of the three Baltic states," was popular among members. The declarations were welcomed with a certain sense of relief by the candidates. That puts an "end to diverse speculation about opening the Alliance to a new enlargement," said Slovakia's foreign minister in reaction to Robertson's announcement. Slovakia welcomed the comments as "particularly encouraging". For Bratislava, the Prague summit now becomes a "historic occasion" for which "the accomplishment is fully within its hands," the minister said. Estonian Defence Minister Juri Luik was more circumspect. He said NATO and the EU should have included new members long before planned expansion dates to better shape common values between the East and West. "We have reached a stage in which we ask -- have we done everything to uphold joint values," Luik said at the close of a NATO Partnership for Peace conference in Tartu on Wednesday. "The clear answer is no. It means both NATO and the EU should have accepted new members earlier," he said, according to a defence ministry statement. NATO's eastward enlargement will be the central theme of a visit to Warsaw by US President George W. Bush on Friday. Before his first official European tour began, Bush said the US firmly supported NATO expansion. He said enlargement was not a question of if, just a question of when, but he has not yet endorsed inviting new members next year. According to analysts, Bush could ease his problems with European allies over his controversial missile shield and environment policies by committing to NATO expansion. The Baltic states especially will be looking for a strong statement from him that the US rejects Russian objections to their joining the alliance. Several NATO members are believed to be reluctant to antagonize Moscow by taking in the three countries that the Soviet Union occupied after World War However Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov admitted in May that Moscow does not have "a right of veto" over the alliance's plans. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Spot the hottest trends in music, movies, and more. http://buzz.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
