-Caveat Lector-
"Russia has threatened to sever relations with NATO if any of the Baltic
states --Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, once under Soviet control-- become
NATO members."
NATO Raises Bar for New Members
By HARRY DUNPHY
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The door to NATO remains open to new members, but they may
find getting over the threshold more difficult than the alliance's three
newest members did.
The Membership Action Plan approved by participants at the weekend NATO
summit provides no timetable for accession of new candidates nor any
guarantee they will get in.
Rather, it establishes a program of activities designed ``to assist aspiring
countries in their preparations for possible future membership.'' These
include commitments to strengthen democracy, human rights, democratic control
of the armed forces and programs to improve military cooperation with the 19
NATO countries.
In effect, what NATO appears to have done in the 10-page plan is to raise the
bar for alliance membership.
``This provides a reality check on these nations' idea that NATO is their
Father Christmas,'' said Daniel Plesch, director of the British-American
Security Information Council, a liberal research group that specializes in
European defense issues.
Romanian Foreign Minister Andrei Plesu said he was not satisfied with the
plan because it does not include a precise schedule for admitting new
members.
``The time horizon is there but this is not going to satisfy our wish for an
exact deadline,'' Plesu told the Romanian private news agency Mediafax.
But Slovenia's Foreign Minister Boris Frlec does not agree that starting
accession negotiations now will become more difficult.
``We see the plan as a paved road leading to membership and we feel we
already have fulfilled a number of the criteria it contains,'' Frlec said.
``It is meant to provide concrete help to countries that have ambitions to
join.''
Vygaudas Usackas, the political director of Lithuania's Foreign Ministry,
said the plan commits NATO members to helping countries that want to join
through mutual engagement.
``These are the guidelines we have been waiting for,'' Usackas said.
In the summit communique, the prospective new members are named in groups.
They are Romania and Slovenia, which almost made it in at the last NATO
summit, in Madrid, Spain, in 1997, when the alliance decided to admit Poland,
Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Then come the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Bulgaria
and Slovakia get separate mention for ``positive developments'' since Madrid,
meaning they have become more democratic.
Rounding out the list are Macedonia and Albania, which are bearing the brunt
of the refugee exodus from Kosovo but have no serious chance of joining for
at least a decade.
Macedonia's President Kiro Gligorov sharply criticized NATO for not inviting
his country to join NATO, saying the alliance had shown no appreciation for
Macedonia's efforts to qualify for membership.
``Macedonia has been circumvented and has again been put in last place,''
Gligorov told reporters Sunday.
Slovenia and Lithuania are most often cited as being at the top of the list
under a plan that would take in one southern European country and one
northern one.
But admitting Lithuania, which like its two Baltic neighbors were part of the
former Soviet Union, could provoke a crisis with Russia. It has threatened to
sever relations with NATO if any of the Baltic states join NATO.
Whatever their chances of membership now, none of the prospective new members
are likely to be admitted until early in the next century, officials in these
countries have acknowledged. NATO members and officials have said the
alliance needs time to get used to working with its three newest members.
Before the summit, countries that want to be in the next wave of expansion
said they expected NATO members to provide them with a road map setting out
what requirements they had to meet to join.
They were not disappointed. The Membership Action Plan outlines what aspiring
countries have to do to strengthen their candidacies.
The MAP, is a ``practical manifestation of the Open Door and has five
chapters ... that highlight mechanisms through which preparation for possible
eventual membership can be carried forward,'' the document says.
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