No. 5. (96/03/08)     The Process of Euro-atlantic Integration (February 1996)

2nd February

• Russian Defence Minister Pavel Grachev said at his Belgrade press conference that "the formation of a new military alliance cannot be excluded in case of a NATO Eastern enlargement". Possible partners are to be among Central and Eastern European states and CIS. At the same time Russia would launch new military programmes and reconsider existing arms control agreements.

3rd February

• The traditional Munich Conference on International Security brought about an overt surfacing of the manifold concerns which arise in connection with NATO enlargement, especially the reassurance of Russia and securing her participation in the European cooperation.

6th February

• Outgoing US Under-secretary of State Richard Holbrook, on his last visit while in office to Budapest, emphasised Washington's support for Hungary. He said, however, that the problem of the relations of Budapest and its neighbours would undoubtedly arise at the Congress debate on the extension of security guarantees. Holbrook praised Hungary's participation in OSCE and IFOR.

7th February

• Russian Ambassador in Bratislava Sergei Yastrzhembski called the relations of Slovakia and Russia exemplary. In an interview to a Czech daily, he said Bratislava - as opposed to Prague, Budapest and Warsaw - observed the Russian concerns related to NATO Eastern enlargement. (The Slovakian Foreign Ministry rejected the statement.)

8th February

• Russian Foreign Minister Primakov emphasised at a meeting of the Duma Commission of Foreign Affairs that Moscow was in no position to veto any NATO enlargement and had no right to ban any sovereign nation from joining any organisation. However, Russia is not interested in NATO enlargement, and will defend its national interests, but will not allow a return of the Cold War.

9th February

• At the Budapest conference "Hungary 2000" of successful Hungarians living abroad, Canadian businessman Andrew Sarlós objected Central Europe's joining NATO, and called for neutrality guaranteed by NATO (USA) and Russia.

10th February

• At a press conference held jointly with visiting French far right leader Le Pen, Russian right wing leader Vladimir Zhirinovski said that, in case he is elected president, he would exert a preventive blow on the Central European states that declare their joining NATO.

11th February

• Addressing Central and Eastern European Americans, President Bill Clinton confirmed that the security of the region will be guaranteed by an enlargement of NATO. He emphasised, however, that the enlargement should be implemented carefully.

12th February

• In a communiqué, the Czech Ministry of Defence made known that it will send delegations to each NATO member state to inform them on the country's intention of joining NATO and its preparations and achievements in its efforts to that end. The communiqué made it clear that the Czech Republic will not consult Russia on the issue.

14th February

• In a Budapest interview, US Defence Under-secretary John P. White did not exclude the possibility of leaving US personnel at the Taszár air base after the expiration of IFOR mandate. (Hungarian Minister of Defence György Keleti said such issue did not emerge during the talks.) Officials in Washington have refuted White's statement.

• Polish President Kwasniewski, while visiting Hungary, said the Oleksy affair (the former Polish prime minister is being accused of spying for the former Soviet Union) did not undermine Poland's chances of integration.

16th February

• EU Commission Vice President Sir Leon Brittain, on his Budapest talks, said both NATO and EU would evaluate the new membership applications in the next 18-24 months.

19th February

• Russian President Boris Yeltsin, on his joint press conference with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, said there were only minor disagreements on the issue of NATO enlargement. Kohl, on the other hand, emphasised the possibility of bringing closer the Russian security interests and the right of the states in question to decide independently on whether to join the North Atlantic Alliance or not.

• President of the North Atlantic Assembly Karsten Voigt evaluated the state of Transatlantic relations in his speech at the organisation's session on 19th February. The four main topics of the report are: 1. admission of new NATO members in 1998, establishment of an admission strategy in 1996 and preparation of the MPs of the present members for the admission ratification process; 2. cooperation of the Central European states in the EU's joint foreign and security policy; 3. prospects of the integration of the EU and WEU; 4. establishment of new subcommissions in the parliaments of the member states in order to calm down Transatlantic debates and the need of a "civil" NATO. Voigt clearly pointed out that no further significant decision on NATO enlargement is expected until the June, 1996 Russian presidential elections. This does not mean idleness: this stage of the enlargement process is devoted to the assessment of the qualification of the applicant countries. The peacemaking operations in Bosnia provide these countries with excellent opportunities to cooperate with NATO forces among real conditions fundamentally different from those of Partnership for Peace manoeuvres. The ultimate aim of the preparation strategy is the designation of those new allies whose achievements in internal democratic and political reforms and in the resolution of minority problems and territorial debates facilitate NATO accession in 1998 at the latest.

20th February

• NATO General Secretary Javier Solana discussed the problems of the next century role of NATO and the renewal of the Transatlantic partnership. Solana warned of the dangers of a reviving American isolationism and the fact that, though the Transatlantic relation survived many crises, its existence is by no means automatic or guaranteed. The Bosnian crisis proved this with brutal force. The Yugoslav crisis, at the same time, reminds of the fact that the historic role of the US in Europe has not finished. This role will be enforced in facing the new challenge of extending the NATO security community on Eastern Europe and the strengthening of democracy on the entire continent. IFOR deployment in Bosnia, the Secretary General said, was more than a simple NATO operation: with IFOR the answering the new challenge, the extension of security onto Central and Eastern Europe begun. Solana said NATO should stand in the centre of the European security structure. He ended his utterance with a remark to the future generation, which should not let the two parts of the Atlantic region, Europe and America, be alienated from each other, but should instead strengthen their relations.

22nd February

• US Ambassador in Bucharest Alfred Moses warned at the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj that the necessary economic reforms in Romania were progressing far too slowly. In connection with Romania's NATO accession, he pointed out that a possible favourable decision was conditional on the state of minority rights, the concluding of basic treaties with neighbouring countries, Romania's adherence to democratic values and that extremist parties would be excluded from Parliament after the next general elections.

23rd February

• At the London interparliamentary session of WEU, UK Prime Minister John Major - as opposed to the majority of his European colleagues - rejected the unification of EU and WEU in a defence alliance. At its extraordinary session, WEU considered its own future in the light of EU's intergovernmental conference due in the near future.

26th February

• The Hungarian IFOR engineering corps completed the construction of a 220 metre long, 31-pontoon bridge over the Sava river.

27th February

• The Hungarian government joined the EU decision calling for self-restrain in arms sales in the Yugoslav region.

28th February

• A spokesman to Russian President Boris Yeltsin denied the rumours that, in exchange for European Council membership, Russia had made concessions on NATO Eastern enlargement. The President's national security advisor, however, hinted at the possibility of a political compromise.

29th February

• On his visit to Bratislava, Russian Foreign Minister Primakov acknowledged that Moscow had no right to veto a NATO Eastern enlargement. He demanded, however, that the Central European states observe Russia's security and interests.

• In a lecture, US Defence Secretary William Perry excluded the possibility of denominating would-be NATO members before 1997.