No. 25 (05/08/97)     One month of the Euro-Atlantic integration (July 1997)

July 1
• Süleyman Demirel, Turkish head of state assured Emil Constantinescu, Romanian President that he supported Romania's immediate accession to the NATO. ”Now, more than ever, we believe that Romania is worthy to belong to the Treaty Organization immediately”, wrote the Turkish head of state in his letter.

July 2
• The NATO has already advised ”some countries” that they can expect to receive an invitation to the membership negotiation at the Madrid Summit Meeting. ”We are in contact with the others and the formal decision will be made in Madrid by the heads of state and premiers”, declared Javier Solana, Secretary-General of the NATO in an interview made with him by Le Soir.
• Helmut Kohl, German Chancellor assured Romania that he would support Romania's attempt to gain accession to the NATO in the first round, wrote the Reuter News Agency. The announcement was made after Emil Constantinescu, the Romanian head of state had a meeting with the German premier in Bonn when the Madrid Summit Meeting was already at hand.

July 3
• The extension of the NATO will most probably receive two third support in the Senate of the United States of America. The negotiations with the countries invited to the Madrid Summit Meeting will have been probably finished by December, the American Government will submit the ratification documents to the Senate for approval in February, and they hope that the United States will be the first to ratify the accessions. This has been pointed out at his press conference by Trent Lott, the head of the Republican majority of the American Senate who has come to Budapest as the head of a two party delegation.
• Bill Clinton, U.S. President believes that the extension of the NATO will not stop at the Madrid Summit Meeting but it will be continued in two years time. The American President who has gave an interview to the television France 3 insisted on that in Madrid only three states were invited into the Treaty Organization but he added that he would help those not involved to be able to comply with the requirements as soon as possible.
• Budapest hosted the plenary session of the NATO European Air Space Coordination Committee. The program included the organization of air traffic, airspace coordination and economic activity and military-civilian cooperation.

July 8
• Javier Solana, Secretary-General of the NATO formally announced that in accordance with the compromise reached at the Madrid Summit Meeting of the NATO in the first round Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic would be invited to start accession negotiations to the NATO.
• The extension of the NATO by admitting Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic ”is a huge mistake, perhaps the hugest since the end of World War 2”, said Yevgeniy Primakov, Russian minister of foreign affairs.

July 9
• The heads of state and the premiers of forty three countries sat around the negotiating table at the first summit level session of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in Madrid where the charter between the NATO and Ukraine was ceremonially signed.

July 11
• U.S. General George Joulvan formally resigned from its position as Commander-in-Chief of the United European Forces of the NATO; he had spent almost four years in this position. The post was taken by his compatriot, General Wesley Clark who had headed the southern headquarters of the U.S. armed forces.

July 12
• During the NATO accession negotiations the ministers of defence and the chiefs of the general staff of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary will meet on a three monthly basis, and will hold consultations prior to any technical development of the armies. This is contained in the common announcement which was signed by Miloslav Vyborny Czech, Stanislav Dobrzanski, Polish and György Keleti; Hungarian Minister of Defence at the end of the meeting in Budapest.

July 13
• The Vienna negotiations on the modification of what is called the CFE agreement with regard to the decrease of traditional arms in Europe would be extended to the end of the month. This was what Madeleine Albright, U.S. and Yevgeniy Primakov, Russian foreign minister agreed in St. Petersburg. At this meeting the sharp conflict with regard to the extension of the NATO continued to be maintained.

July 15
• Upon the visit paid by the U.S., the UK and the German foreign ministers to Moscow the Agenda of the first meeting of the NATO-Russia Permanent Council was outlined, announced Yevgeniy Primakov, Russian foreign minister after he had met his German colleague, Klaus Kinkel, with whom he discussed the cooperation between the NATO and Russia after Madrid.
• The fact that Kiev had not expressed its intention whether it wished to join the NATO did not imply that they rejected cooperation with the Organization, said Udovenko, Ukrainian foreign minister.
• The European Commission has approved of the proposal related to the extension of the EU that accession negotiations are to be started with six partner countries.
• Emil Constantinescu, Romanian President expressed his opinion in Tokyo that his country would become a fully entitled member of the NATO in two years.

July 17
• The first session of the NATO-Russia Permanent Council planned to be held at the Brussels centre of the Atlantic Organization has been postponed, since the misunderstandings related to the operation of the Chairman have not been settled. No new date has been set yet.

July 18
• The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland agreed that after the Madrid Summit Meeting of the NATO all three partners were interested in regular an close cooperation, continued exchange of experience. This was stated by Josef Zielenic, Czech foreign minister in Prague after the foreign ministers of the three countries had met in the Czech capital.
• In Brussels the NATO-Russian Permanent Common Council had its statutory meeting. The establishment of the body had been envisaged by the ”Deed of Foundation” that provided a formal framework for the bilateral relations and was signed in May, but its actual completion was delayed by certain grievances related to procedural issues.

July 22
• Michal Kovác, Slovakian head of state believed that it had to be put forth unambiguously that we and Vladimír Meciar and his government ”would never get into” the NATO or the European Union. That was how the head of state responded to the Slovakian Prime Minister's announcement that Tony Blair, UK foreign minister had offered the Slovakian premier assistance aimed to achieve compliance with the conditions of the integration. The letter was handed over by Peter Harbrone, UK Ambassador In Bratislava to Vladimír Meciar. Blair's letter contained an offer for assistance in defence and security with the aim that Slovakia could meet the expectations related to the extension of the NATO.

July 24
• While the possible rejection by the Senate of the ratification of the extension of the NATO was called ”an intolerable idea” by Robert Hunter, U.S. NATO Ambassador, that, in his view, would fairly question the trustworthiness of the United States, Yuriy Vorontsov, Russian Ambassador in Washington deemed the extension itself to be ”the last error of the century”. • The extension of the NATO would generate moderate costs for the new members and the 16 existing member states, stated Javier Solana in Washington. The Secretary-General of the NATO pointed out that the three invited countries ”will not have to fully arm themselves for lack of any threat”.

July 25
• In Brussels the harmonization between the NATO and Hungary has begun, this time only in terms of technical, procedural issues, with regard to the would-be accession minutes. During the course of this harmonization Gebhard von Moltke, Deputy Secretary-General of the NATO and András Simonyi, Ambassador, the head the Atlantic Liaison Office in Brussels agreed, among other things, that the accession negotiations would commence September 10 in Brussels and would have been completed as scheduled by the end of October as simultaneously further harmonization at experts' level would be pursued. If no special problems occured, then the accession minutes were expected to be approved by the NATO Ambassadors' Council in November and would be signed in the presence of the Hungarian minister of foreign affairs at the meeting of foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Council in December.

July 14-22
Organized by the North Atlantic General Meeting and the European Centre of Security Studies (George C. Marshall Centre) a seminar entitled ”Security in Democratic Societies” was held for Members of Parliament in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The event was attended by Magdolna Baráth, László Kocsis and Pál Papp, Members of Parliament. The participants dealt with the following subjects under a series of lectures:
• civilian-military relations in democracy;
• the highest level of headquarters of the commander in time of peace and war
• defence planning and budgeting: the role of committees
• information channels for Members of Parliament
• monitoring defence programs by the National Assembly
• international terrorism and organized crime
• the North Atlantic Treaty Organization