No. 33 (11. 07. 97)     A Month of the Euro-Atlantic Integration  (October 1997)

October 2nd

• NATO Secretary General Javier Solana declared that the bulk of the costs deriving from the eastern expansion of the Alliance should be borne by the three candidate countries. U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen expressed similar sentiments at Maastricht, where the defense ministers of the NATO had met with their Hungarian, Czech, and Polish counterparts in the 16+3 meeting for the first time.

October 7th

• The Lithunian Government wishes to have the integrationist maturity of the Baltic state revised and to achieve equal opportunities in the accession process to EU -- declared Lithuanian Foreign Minister Algirdas Saudargas in his talks in Budapest. The Hungarian Foreign Minister, László Kovács assured his Lithuanian counterpart his support and he added that Budapest would be willing to share her experiences regarding integration.

October 8th

• It was Hungary from among the non-NATO member countries that had established official diplomatic relations with the Alliance first with an independent ambassador. András Simonyi presented his credentials to NATO Secretary General Javier Solana in the presence of ambassadors of the sixteen member states. Solana spoke highly of Hungary's achievements at receiving the credentials and he believed that their logical consequence would be Hungary's first place.
• The Hungarian, the Czech, and the Polish representatives also attended the session of the NATO-workgroup engaged in the international treaty regarding the disarmament of the conventional weapons. It was the first time that the three states invited to join the organization -- in accordance with the special status valid from next January -- had been able to participate in one of the organizations of the North-Atlantic Organization with a right of consultation. The workgroup named High Level Task Force holds sessions continually; its task is to bring about internal coordination respecting the CFE-treaty, which regulates the disarmament of the conventional weapons.
• The West should make amends for its betrayal committed at Yalta by supporting the accession of Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland into the NATO -- declared the Republican Senator Jesse Helms. The conservative politician practically opened the ratification debate in the U.S. Senate in an offensive way. He stated that the West should embrace these democracies at least now and it should also show a way out of the past of ethnic division and wars.

October 9th

• The 43rd annual session of the North-Atlantic Assembly opened in Bucharest. It was attended by the delegates of the associated countries besides those from the NATO-member states.
• The German Bundestag would like to be the first West-European legislative to ratify the accession protocols of the three new NATO members. I think that it may already happen in next January -- said a parliamentary representative of the SPD, Günter Verhaugen, who visited Hungary on the invitation of the parliamentary group of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP).

October 10th

• A Hungarian-Czech-Polish defense ministerial meeting was held at Komorni Hradek in central Bohemia. The goal of the meeting was for the ministers to discuss the questions related to the accession of their countries to the NATO.

October 11th

• The three Central-European countries invited to join the NATO would like to be granted the rights in the North-Atlantic Assembly which the NATO itself already granted them. This request was made by the Hungarian, the Czech, and the Polish delegations at the Bucharest meeting of the said organization, which is sometimes called the parliament of the NATO.

October 13th

• The NATO still has not identified the concrete figures regarding the share of the would-be Hungarian financial contribution, but it may be expected that they will be disclosed at the fourth round of accession talks scheduled on October 22nd. The North-Atlantic Organization took notice of the defense budget plans of the Hungarian Government -- said the head of the State Secretariat for Integration in the Foreign Ministry, Ferenc Somogyi after the third round of the NATO-Hungarian talks.

October 14th

• Accession to the Atlantic Organization cannot be likened to joining a club. As far as the NATO is concerned, it is a common defense alliance in which the individual countries tie their own security to that of the others' -- said U.S. Ambassador to NATO in Brussels Robert Hunter. The diplomat declared while summarizing his experiences in Budapest that he sensed a strong commitment to NATO-membership in governental circles and this fact is important both for the U.S. leadership and the U.S. Congress. You have covered a large distance in a few short years -- expressed Hunter appreciation for Hungary's role as a member of the PfP and for its activites in SFOR/IFOR.

October 15th

• Javier Solana is sure that the schedule of the talks regarding the expansion of NATO can be kept and that the debate over the referendum in Hungary will not delay the signing of the accession protocols at the end of the year. The Secretary General of of Alliance is not afraid that the member states will block the ratification of the expansion on account of financial reasons. However, the international press believes that the domestic political debate may make Hungary's accession to the NATO more difficult because, as U.S. Ambassador Hunter indicated, accession is not a foregone thing at all.

October 17th

• According to U.S. Undersecretary of State Strobe Talbott, the events of the past few months proved those wrong who stated in opposing the expansion of the NATO that the expansion of the borders of the North-Atlantic Organization might stop short the reform processes in Russia and might play into the hands of the antidemocratic forces. He mentioned as an example that Moscow did not only speed up the pace of internal transformation, but it also entered into closer cooperation with the the West.
• A two-day international regional conference started in Budapest on the expansion of the NATO. The conference was opened by a former U.S. Senator, Hank Brown. The participants discussed the economic, security, and defense impacts of the expansion of the NATO.

October 21st

• The costs of the first round of the expansion of the NATO will be lower than the ones estimated by the U.S. Administration previously -- told U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the U.S. Senate. The new estimates of NATO have been completed and they show that the costs of the accession of Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland will not reach USD35 billion in the next twelve years. According to the new estimates, the costs will be below USD30 billion; 15% of this sum will be paid by the United States.

October 23rd

• The Russian commander-in-chief had visited the NATO Headquarters in Brussels for the first time. Anatolij Kvasnyin again told his host, Secretary General Javier Solana, that Moscow was worried about the expansion of the Alliance.
• The NATO decided about the share of the contributions to be paid by the new members. The Head of the State Secretariat for Integration in the Foreign Ministry, Ferenc Somogyi declared while discussing the fourth round of the NATO-Hungarian accession talks that the Hungarian contribution would be of the same proportion in all the three branches of the budget, that is, in the political, military, and infrastructural-development funds.

October 24th

• I am sure that the great majority of the Hungarian voters will support Hungary's accession to NATO -- declared the U.S. Ambassador designate to Hungary, Peter F. Tufo at his Senate hearings. He emphasized together with his would-be colleagues to Bucharest, Warsaw, and Brussels that the Euro-Atlantic integration would bring prosperity and security to Eastern Europe. The senators indicated that they expected that Hungary would further improve her relations with the neighboring countries and the conditions of the minorities inside the country. It was also mentioned that Hungary might receice a new role in the peace-keeping mission in Bosnia.

October 26th

• The NATO suggested that Hungary pay 0.65% of the budget of the Alliance as an annual fee after joining the organization. This sum would total USD11.7 million, that is, about HUF2.3 billion at the moment. The news was announced by László Kovács. The Foreign Minister also said that this sum would be slightly more than 1 per cent of the expected defence budget of Hungary one year after the planned accession, that is, in 2000. This is the sum that can be said to be the extra cost incurred by NATO-membership. László Kovács emphasized at the same time that this sum is hardly one-third of the sum Hungary should pay if it wished to guarantee the security of the country of equal quality outside of the North-Atlantic Organization.

October 29th

• The last round of the NATO-accession talks in Brussels finished successfully with resolving the pending budgetary questions. The Hungarian delegation agreed that the country should pay 0.65% of the common budget of the NATO. The NATO confirmed the Hungarian suggestion at the same time, according to which the share of the defense budget in terms of the GDP would be increaced by an annual 0.1% for the sake of future improvements.
  Hungary should send two letters to the NATO before signing the accession protocol. One of them is a letter of intention about the accession, while the other one is a document in which the country undertakes paying the agreed budgetary contribution.

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The Integrationist Activities of the National Assembly in the Field of Security Policies
(A Summary for October)

October 9th-13th
The North-Atlantic Assembly held its 43rd annual fall session in Bucharest on October 9th-13th, 1997, which was attended by the delegates of the associated countries besides the ones from the NATO member states. Work was done in five committees and the Permanent Committee also held sessions. On behalf of the Hungarian National Assembly delegation head Jenõ Rácskay, deputy delegation heads György Csóti and Tamás Wachsler, and a delegation member, Pál Papp were present.

October 30th
The North-Atlantic Information Center of the Foreign Affairs Office of the National Assembly organized a conference in cooperation with the Friedrich Neumann Foundation and the NATO under the title of "Hungary and the NATO" in the building of the Parliament. The conference was concerned with two major topics: the place of Hungary in Europe and in the world after accession to the NATO, and the NATO and the society. Papers were presented at the conference by Donald J. McConnell, the Deputy of the Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs of the NATO; Dr. Daniel George, the Head of the Economics Office of the NATO; Simon Lunn, the Secretary General of the North-Atlantic Assembly; Andreas Oplatka, the Central-East European correspondent of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. As for the Hungarians, the following people read papers: Dr. Zoltán Gál, the Speaker of the National Assembly; László Kovács, the Foreign Minister; Imre Mécs, the Chair of the Defense Committee; Dr. István Szent-Iványi, the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee; Jenõ Rácskay, Hungarian Delegation Head to the North-Atlantic Assembly; György Csóti, Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee; Dr. Géza Jeszenszky, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee; Dr. András Simonyi, the Hungarian Ambassador to the NATO in Brussels; and Dr. István Gyarmati, the Deputy Secretary of State in the Defense Ministry.
Almost sixty non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participated in the conference.

Secretary General Simon Lunn announced at the conference that in harmony with the decision made by the North-Atlantic Assembly the right of organizing the spring session in 2000 has been awarded to the Hungarian National Assembly.