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STRENGTHENING NATO AND EUROPEAN SECURITY
"We want all of Europe to have what America helped build in
Western Europe - a community that upholds common standards of human rights,
where people have the confidence and security to invest in the future, where
nations cooperate to make war unthinkable. That is why I have pushed hard for
NATO's enlargement and why we must keep NATO's doors open to new democratic
members, so that other nations will have an incentive to deepen their democracies."
President Clinton
San Francisco, California
February 26, 1999
Early in his first term, President Clinton outlined a vision of a Europe peaceful,
undivided and democratic for the first time in history. Safeguarding Europe's
freedom by inviting emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe to join
NATO has been central to his vision, and his success in enlarging the Trans-Atlantic
alliance to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in March 1999 marked
a historic step towards realizing it. President Clinton has also made clear this
would not be NATO's last round of enlargement, reaffirming during the Washington
Summit in April 1999 that the door remains open for new members. President Clinton
has also spearheaded efforts to ensure that NATO meets the new security challenges
of the next century, forging agreement on a new Strategic Concept. He also reaffirmed
that NATO will honor the fundamentals on which the Alliance was founded, most
notably in Kosovo, where NATO launched an air campaign that reversed ethnic cleansing
and ended a decade of repression. Just as NATO proved the basis for Western Europe's
stability and integration after World War II, a growing, evolving NATO is proving
a basis for stability and integration for all of Europe in the post-Cold War world.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is also contributing
to building a peaceful, undivided and democratic Europe. At the November 1999
Istanbul Summit President Clinton and the leaders of other states participating
in the OSCE, including Russia, signed a new Charter for European Security that
recognizes European security in the 21st century increasingly depends on building
security within societies as well as security between states.
A RECORD OF ACCOMPLISHMENT
NATO
The Clinton Administration has led efforts to adapt NATO to meet new security
challenges. Responding to President Clinton's call to embrace the new democracies
of Central and Eastern Europe, NATO heads of government at the 1994 Brussels
Summit committed to launch a process of enlargement that "would reach to
democratic states to our East, as part of an evolutionary process, taking into
account political and security developments in the whole of Europe.
- Invited the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to begin accession talks
with NATO, at the Madrid Summit in July 1997, at the end of the intensive,
individualized dialogue with allied Heads of State and Government. The U.S.
Senate ratified the Treaty on NATO Accession for the Czech Republic, Hungary
and Poland on April 30, 1998, by a vote of 80-19. The Czech Republic, Hungary,
and Poland joined the Alliance in March 1999.
- Launched the Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the Washington Summit in April
1999. The MAP process began with intensive consultations at NATO in Fall 1999.
At May and December 2000 meetings, NATO Foreign Ministers welcomed progress
made by the nine participating countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and
Slovenia), in implementing the MAP.
- Designated Prague (in December 2000) as the site of the next NATO summit,
which will review the enlargement process and take place no later than 2002.
- Committed (at the 1999 Washington Summit) to building a more capable, flexible
Alliance able to undertake new missions. In particular, Allies launched an
initiative to improve NATO's defense capabilities, with a special emphasis
on interoperability, to ensure the effectiveness of future multinational operations
across the full spectrum of Alliance missions. Allies committed themselves
to increase Alliance efforts against weapons of mass destruction and their
means of delivery, and reaffirmed their determination to combat terrorism.
The Alliance also agreed on a new command structure adapted to NATO's new
roles and missions.
- Initiated the Partnership for Peace (PfP) in 1994 among NATO, the neutral
powers and the military organizations of the new democracies of Central Europe,
and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to strengthen security in Europe
and help aspiring members prepare for possible membership through practical
training and joint exercises with NATO. The Partnership for Peace now has
26 members, with Croatia joining most recently, on 24 May, 2000.
- Launched a PfP military exercise program between NATO and PfP members in
1994. Nineteen NATO-sponsored PfP exercises occurred in the period July 1999-June
2000, three of them in the United States. The Partnership continues to show
its value in Bosnia and Kosovo, where forces from Partner countries are serving
shoulder-to-shoulder in NATO-led peacekeeping operations.
OSCE/CFE
- Joined OSCE leaders in Istanbul in November 1999 to adopt the Charter for
European Security which commits members to establish Rapid Expert Assistance
and Cooperation Teams (REACT) to assist in conflict prevention and crisis
management.
- Joined the other 29 parties to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces
in Europe (CFE) in signing the CFE Adaptation Agreement in Istanbul, Turkey
in November 1999, to bring the Treaty in line with the post-Cold War security
environment. The Adapted Treaty creates a new, highly stable, transparent
set of limitations on conventional forces. It replaces the Treaty's obsolete
bloc-to-bloc structure with nationally-based limits, enhances transparency
through more information and inspections, strengthens requirements for host
nation consent to the presence of stationed forces, and opens the Treaty to
other European states. In related commitments, Russia agreed to withdraw its
forces from Moldova and to reduce its forces in Georgia. The new Vienna Document
1999 improves confidence and security-building measures and will facilitate
regional politico-military cooperation through the OSCE Forum for Security
Cooperation. In the year after the Istanbul summit, the Clinton Administration
took the lead in promoting Russian compliance with the terms of the Adapted
Treaty and related agreements.
- Took part in certain OSCE missions in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central
Asia, Moldova, Belarus, the Baltic states and elsewhere, providing independent
observation, analysis and recommendations aimed at resolving ethnic conflicts
within member states. OSCE provided police officers as well as judicial and
administrative personnel, elections specialists and media experts to support
development of civil society.
- Initiated the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe with the European Union
and adopted it in Sarajevo in July 1999. This historic partnership between
the international community and the countries of Southeast Europe is designed
to accelerate the region's democratic and economic development, bolster security
and advance integration into the European and transatlantic mainstream.
REFERENCES
Washington Summit Declaration, April 23, 1999.
Speech by President Clinton at the Washington Summit, April 23, 1999.
Remarks by President Clinton at Baltic Charter Signing Ceremony, January 16,
1998.
Madrid Summit Declaration, July 8, 1997.
Brussels Summit Declaration, January 10-11, 1994.
OSCE Istanbul Summit Declaration, November 18-19, 1999.
OSCE Charter for European Security, November 18-19, 1999.
Agreement on Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed
Forces in Europe, November 19, 1999.
Final Act of the Conference of the States parties to the Treaty
on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.
Statement by the President on the CFE Treaty, November 19, 1999.
OSCE Vienna Document 1999.
OSCE Vienna Declaration and Chairman's Summary, November 2000.
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