[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Miroslav Antic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: NATO <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; NSP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Sorabia@Yahoogroups. Com <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; BALKAN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; SNN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 12:20 AM Subject: Ex-communists press NATO hopes, hear Bush message [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ex-communists press NATO hopes, hear Bush message BRATISLAVA, May 10 (AFP) - Leaders of 10 ex-communist states gathered Thursday to discuss their hopes of joining NATO despite Russian opposition, and to hear a personal message of support from US President George W. Bush. The prime ministers of countries from the Baltics to the Balkans are vying to be invited to join the Alliance, which took in its first three ex-communist countries in 1999, at a NATO summit in Prague late next year. "The fact that they are meeting at the level of prime ministers shows how serious they are," said a NATO official. "These countries want to join, it is important that they prepare themselves as well as possible," he added. The 19-member Alliance, which took in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in 1999 in its last wave of expansion, is to decide on new invitations at a summit in the Czech capital Prague in November 2002. The big question is, which countries will be invited to begin membership talks. Some NATO members, notably in Europe, are reportedly keen to invite Balkan countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia to boost stability in the still conflict-ridden region. The Baltic states are said to have support notably in Washington, although others warn of the destabilizing potential of extending NATO right up to Russia's frontiers and including countries with Russian-speaking minorities. NATO says it understands Russia's concerns about its former Cold War adversary expanding into the ex-Soviet bloc, but will not be dictated to. "There is no question Russia or any other... has a veto over NATO decisions... NATO is not a war machine, it's not about isolating Russia," said the official. "At this stage there are no pre-decisions. The number of invitations which could be given out in Prague ranges from zero to nine," he said, adding: "Ultimately this a political decision." In Bratislava, the prime ministers of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia will discuss a range of security-related issues. The prime ministers of Albania and Macedonia cancelled at the last minute due to the conflict in Macedonia, sending deputy premiers. Marc Grossman, US under secretary of state for political affairs, was to deliver a personal message from Bush at the start of the summit Thursday evening. Formal talks between the leaders begin Friday morning. The latest nine official candidates were named at a 1999 NATO conference in Washington. Croatia is not an official candidate, but has joined the group of hopefuls. The nine countries met in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in May last year and issued a joint declaration saying they would all be ready to join NATO by Bruce Jackson, a member of the US Senate foreign relations committee and president of the US Committee on NATO, a non-profit body, met Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda Thursday ahead of the summit. "The architects of the New Europe are coming to Bratislava because they know that the project of a Europe whole and free is unfinished," he said. Czech President Vaclav Havel, who will host the Prague summit next year, will make a keynote address to the Bratislava meeting Friday, The 140 participants here will include Zbigniew Brzezinski, an aide to former US president Jimmy Carter, as well NATO assistant secretary general for political affairs, Klaus-Peter Klaiber. The meeting will climax in a Bratislava Declaration aimed at expressing a powerful call for acceleration at European integration. Russia is watching the process closely. But NATO insists it need not be concerned. "Russia is not NATO's enemy... We are extremely open, and keen to dispel any myths," said the official. "But this doesn't mean that we are going to sit down and ask Russia for permission," he added. Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
