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NATO chief vows new members will toe the line By George Gedda, Associated Press, 4/11/2002 WASHINGTON - NATO's secretary general, Lord Robertson, said yesterday the alliance will demand high standards of prospective new members to ensure they share the costs as well as the benefits. ''Nobody is going to slide in under the door,'' Robertson told a gathering of reporters. The 19-member alliance is poised to issue invitations for new members in November at a summit meeting in the Czech Republic. In the most recent enlargement, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland were admitted in 1999. There are nine countries seeking admission now. Some NATO members have complained that some candidates may not be able to bear their fair share of the alliance defense burden because their military arsenals consist mostly of aging Soviet-era military equipment. Robertson, who met with President Bush on Tuesday, said all the candidates are committed to modernization and each is spending 2 percent or more of its gross national product on defense. This, he said, is more than many NATO members spend. ''They are not going to get into NATO unless they can prove to the prime ministers and presidents in November that their commitment to modernizing their military is going to be sustainable and not just a snapshot before the decision is taken,'' Robertson said. In the category of strong candidates for admission are Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovenia. Albania, Macedonia, and Croatia are considered to have little chance in this round. Robertson said it is a mistake to judge the military capability of NATO countries by the number of tanks or other such weapons in their inventories. ''It is the intelligent solider that is the key capability of the NATO countries,'' he said. ''We saw that in Afghanistan. It's got to be the intelligent individual that is in charge of the superintelligent equipment.'' Later, in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Robertson said one of his highest priorities is NATO military modernization. ''This underpins everything that NATO does,'' he said. ''Political statements on their own cut no ice with terrorists or dictators. If Europe is to punch its weight as an ally of the United States - and in its own interest where Washington is not engaged - it must complete the modernization of its armed forces.'' __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
