ACCESSION NUMBER:304778
FILE ID:EUR413
DATE:09/23/93
TITLE:EAST BLOC NATIONS' EVENTUAL NATO ENTRY FAVORED (09/23/93)
TEXT:*93092313.EUR
*EUR413   09/23/93 *

EAST BLOC NATIONS' EVENTUAL NATO ENTRY FAVORED
(Atlantic Council policy paper recommends it)  (440)
By Jim Shevis
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- A policy paper on security relations between the West and six
nations of Eastern and Central Europe favors their admission to the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but only when they make further
progress toward democratization.

"We do not think they are yet far enough down the road," retired Army
General Carl E. Vuono said September 22 at an Atlantic Council of the
United States briefing.

Vuono, a former Army chief of staff, and David E. McGiffert, a former Army
1nder secretary, cochaired an Atlantic Council task force that prepared the
paper.

The Atlantic Council is a Washington-based public policy center concerned
mainly with U.S. security interests.

The study focuses on U.S. policy toward Poland, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

The eventual accession of these countries to NATO is one of three basic
recommendations for changes in U.S. policy toward the region.  The others
call for expanded bilateral involvement with the six nations and a modest
funding increase to support such involvement.

"While there are clear differences among these countries in terms of their
progress in developing democratic institutions, free-market economies, and
defensive military force structures," Vuono said, "the similarities were
found to be more important than the differences.

"These countries are relatively small vis-a-vis their powerful neighbors in
the West and East, and have a need for a security safety net that meets the
political, practical, and psychological dimensions of their
vulnerabilities."

Vuono said the six nations want membership in both NATO and the European
Community.  "They see U.S. participation and leadership in NATO as
necessary for the continuation and vitality of that organization," he said.

McGiffert said he does not foresee simultaneous NATO entry of the six
countries because of the unevenness of their democratic development.
Rather, he said, he sees a "cascading" entry.

"Certainly, Hungary is further ahead than Romania in democratization, for
example," he said.

Asked whether NATO membership might be accorded to the Eastern and Central
European countries separately from membership for Russia, Vuono said:

"We've got to be very aware of the Russian situation, but I think you can
separate the two.  They're not necessarily linked together; it's something
NATO is going to have to address."

Vuono also noted that, while U.S. and other Western aid to the former Soviet
republics "clearly is vital, it need not and should not conflict with
assistance to Central and Eastern Europe."

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