----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 2:22 PM Subject: [STOPNATO] NATO expansion in trouble STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG Telegraph (UK) ISSUE 1774Monday 3 April 2000 Nato plans for eastward enlargement put on hold By Christopher Lockwood, Diplomatic Editor, and Tim Butcher, Defence Correspondent NATO'S dream of a widening alliance of democratic states is crumbling just a year after it welcomed its first three eastern European members, say Western officials. Practical and political problems have overwhelmed the process. Nato's new armies in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are under-funded, badly equipped and often unready for action, blunting the appetite for more members. As the three countries took their places under Nato's security umbrella at a ceremony in Independence, Missouri, in March last year, Nato promised that its doors remained open to the rest of eastern Europe. But the experience of enlarging Nato has been so painful and divisive that, for the Baltic states and the countries of the Balkans, a new Iron Curtain may fall. There is a notional deadline of the end of 2002 for the next wave, but it is slipping. The main problem, diplomats in London, Brussels and Washington all admit, is America. A senior source said: "The experience of the previous enlargement was much, much harder than anyone expected. [President] Clinton and [Madeleine] Albright [the Secretary of State] had to battle to get the US Senate to agree to the first expansion. Right now there seems to be no appetite to press for a further one." Nato enlargement needs a two thirds majority in the Senate. Whoever the new US president is, that will be hard to achieve. Petre Roman, the Romanian Foreign Minister, recently acknowledged that his country was in limbo. He said: "Romania is as eager to be a part of Nato as it ever was. We proved that during the Kosovo conflict. But today in America the dynamics of having a second wave are quite flat." Russia is the second problem. "Nato is trying to rebuild its relations with Russia, which were badly strained over Kosovo. With a new president, Vladimir Putin, to deal with, no one is in any hurry to antagonise Russia again by raising the enlargement issue," said a Western official. The third problem is the new applicants themselves. Not only are there obvious military weaknesses but it is not even clear that they really want to belong. Slovakia would be near the front of the queue but, since the Kosovo conflict, support for Nato membership there is 49 per cent, with 35 per cent against. A Slovak source said: "We are being asked to spend about £500,000 on public relations to increase support for Nato." This reflects deep unease among the original Nato countries over the ambivalent attitude towards Nato of the three that joined last year. They were among Nato's most reluctant supporters in the Kosovo conflict, and since then support for Nato has plunged among their people. Nato's new members have also to prove they can contribute militarily. The armed forces of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary are not good enough to compare with those of established Nato nations and there is little sign of improvement. So-called inter-operability is a crucial part of Nato doctrine, meaning that troops from any Nato member must be able to work alongside other alliance armies and replace them if necessary. But the doctrine cannot yet be applied to the new members. Their equipment, training standards and doctrine all fall short of Nato standards. Their main problem is financial. Modern armed forces are expensive and with all three economies yet to recover from decades of communist mismanagement, defence budgets are under pressure. "Is it really enough simply to secure countries like this in Nato for the sake of stability?" asked a British source. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________________________________ Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com
