No. 19. (06/06/97) A month of euroatlantic integration (May 1997)
1st May
- Alfonse d'Amato and Christopher H. Smith American Republican senators warned Slovakian Head of State, Vladimir Meciar in their letter: with respect to last year's worsening of the situation of human rights, Slovakia is not expected to be among the states invited for NATO accession in the first round.
4th May
- The agreement, concluded by Madeleine Albright American
and Yevgeny Primakov Russian Foreign Ministers, according to which
Moscow resigns its demand that NATO -- independently from the extension --
should commit itself to the collective limitation of its armed forces was
qualified as being significant by Washington.
5th May
- The Chinese, the Russian, the Kirghiz, the Kazakh and the Tadzhik
presidents signed a treaty in Moscow reducing the armed forces stationed
at the former Soviet-Chinese border. The document is intended to be an example
setting one for both NATO member states and Central and Eastern European
countries intent on NATO membership.
7th May
- Portugal supports Hungary's NATO and EU accession without reservations,
said Foreign Minister László Kovács during a
press conference held with his Portuguese counterpart Jaime Gama.
8th May
- According to the German Minister of Defence, Volker
Rühe, it has been agreed upon that out of the aspiring Eastern and
Central European states the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary will succeed
in getting into the first turn of NATO extension. "The invitation of Slovenia
and Romania is a subject of further dispute" he added in his statement.
- The People's Patriotic League the organisation joining communist
organisations held demonstrations in Moscow against NATO expansion. Not too
many people took part in the demonstrations organised outside the embassies
of leading NATO member states and most of them were elderly people.
9th May
- Based on his New York and Washington talks with representatives
from the government, legislation and specialist circles Head of the Integration
Secretariat of the Foreign Ministry Ferenc Somogyi said that in practice
America completely agrees with the direction and content of Hungary's preparation
for NATO accession.
11th May
- The Belgian Prime Minister, Jean-Luc Dehaene is very much
for Romania to be in the first turn of NATO expansion. The Brussels government
holds that NATO expansion to the east should take place in terms of geographical
continuity, and so he believes that beside Poland, Hungary and the Czech
Republic, Slovenia and Romania should also be invited to NATO at the July
summit in Madrid. At the same time he warned Bucharest against excessive
optimism. The organisation brings about its decisions unanimously and up
to now they agree in giving favourable verdicts only to Budapest, Prague
and Warsaw.
14th May
- Both Russian Foreign Minister, Yevgeny Primakov and NATO
Secretary General Javier Solana hold that being able to come to an
agreement on the text of the agreement determining the future relationship
between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty is a breakthrough and a tremendous
success. If the leaders of all the states concerned pass the document probably
to be called "charter" it will be ceremonially signed on 27th May in Paris.
- A completely new way of thinking has prevailed over the past, said
the American president on the agreement between NATO and Russia. Bill Clinton
considers the Solana-Primakov agreement a historic step that opens
the way to a unified, undivided Europe. The President also declared that
in contradiction with what Boris Yeltsin, Russian president said in
his television speech, Russia had not received any right of veto.
15th May
- Slovak Foreign affairs Spokesman Dusan Matulay rejected
opinions according to which Hungarian-Slovak relations and the situation
of the Hungarian minority will worsen if Bratislava is excluded from the
first round of NATO expansion.
16th May
- In Brussels NATO's sixteen member states officially ratified the
charter between Russia and NATO. The Russian Duma asked President Yeltsin
to make the agreement available to the representatives.
19th May
- Leader of the opposition Austrian Freedom Party /FPÖ/
Jörg Haider holds that Austria, giving up its neutrality, should
join NATO in the first round, together with its bordering states to the east.
21st May
- If Romania is not in the first round of NATO expansion, it will
not be followed by disastrous consequences, said Romanian Foreign Minister,
Adrian Severin to the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
According to the director of Bucharest diplomacy in this case Romania would
still have the intention of joining the North Atlantic Treaty as soon as
possible and the administration would insist on following a policy of reform.
22nd May
- No one expects Austria to join NATO immediately and without any
particular reason, said Austrian-Chancellor Viktor Klima at a Vienna
event of the Austrian Social Democratic Party /SPÖ/.
23rd May
- Yevgeny Primakov believes that Moscow will have a veto in
the NATO-Russian Council on matters concerning Russian interests. The Russian
Foreign Minister spoke about this while introducing the NATO-Russian charter
in the Duma. As it is well known the other party has an opposing interpretation
regarding the veto.
24th May
- Russian Foreign Minister, Yevgeny Primakov warned against
the NATO accession of the Baltic states. Since in this case Russia would
reconsider their relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, said
Primakov. He emphasised that his country "does not threaten the Baltic
republics", but at the same time Russia was definitely against the NATO accession
of the former Soviet states.
- In Slovakia a referendum on NATO accession has ended with a participation
rate of barely 10%. The referendum choked with complete chaos was accompanied
with a series of scandals. The Central Election Committee made a criminal
charge against the Minister for Home Affairs Gustav Krajci who instead
of the four-question voting paper prescribed by the President had a
three-question paper delivered to the voters. The eight opposition parties
of the Slovakian parliament declared in a joint statement that after what
has happened they were not prepared to negotiate with the government coalition.
27th May
- Heads of state and prime ministers of the 16 NATO member countries,
NATO Secretary General, Javier Solana and Boris Yeltsin
ceremonially signed the agreement between NATO and Russia in Paris, which
according to the joint standpoint of all the parties affected, the document
is an important building block towards the creation of the new European security
system and leads to the NATO accession of Central European states and ends
the cold war era. The 16 page document came into force immediately after
signing. After the signing Russian President Yeltsin had a surprise announcement
on dismantling the Russian warheads aimed at NATO states.
29th May
- In Sintra, Portugal, talks for Foreign Ministers of the North Atlantic
Council /NAC/ has begun on NATO's eastern expansion. At the opening session
NATO Secretary General, Javier Solana said, "With this present forum
we also intend to demonstrate that NATO is unified in pursuing the right
course towards the next century".
Madeleine Albright, American
foreign minister stated in her speech: NATO should insist that countries
aspiring for accession to the organisation must meet the expectations prescribed
by the alliance as precisely as possible before joining. On the other hand
NATO has to make it clear in Madrid that this expansion is not the last one
and not a single European democracy will be denied the opportunity to join
NATO.
NATO Foreign Ministers have started to select the Eastern European
states designated for membership. It is still Hungary, the Czech Republic
and Poland that have the best chances although many member states still strongly
support the accession of Romania and Slovenia in the first round.
At
the Foreign Ministers' meeting an agreement was initialled regulating the
relationship between the North Atlantic Treaty and the Ukraine, it will be
signed formally at NATO's July summit in Madrid. The agreement, which is
a higher level of co-operation than peace partnership but lower than the
NATO-Russian agreement, is the key factor to the stability of Central, Eastern
Europe and the whole continent, said the Ukrainian Foreign Minister.
At
the meeting the founding document of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council
/EAPC/ that steps in the place of the North Atlantic Co-operation Council
/NACC/ was accepted.