ACCESSION NUMBER:320932
FILE ID:TXT401
DATE:01/13/94
TITLE:CLINTON ON SECURITY IN EUROPE (01/13/94)
1EXT:*94011301.TXT
CLINTON ON SECURITY IN EUROPE

(VOA Editorial)  (420)
(Following is an editorial, broadcast by the Voice of America January 13,
reflecting the views of the U.S. government.)

In a speech prior to the NATO summit in Brussels, President Bill Clinton
declared that the security of the United States "depends on the existence
of a strong and free and democratic Europe."  The bonds between the United
States and Europe remain unique, despite the vast changes since the end of
the Cold War.  The United States. and Europe, said Clinton, "share a
passionate faith that God has endowed us as individuals with inalienable
rights and a belief that the state exists by our consent solely to advance
freedom and security and prosperity for all of us as individuals."

During the last half century, transatlantic security depended primarily on
the deterrence provided by military forces.  Now the immediate threat is
not the possibility of advancing armies, but of creeping instability.  To
meet this threat, a new security structure must bind a broader Europe
together.  President Clinton has proposed and NATO has accepted the
Partnership for Peace, which looks to the day when NATO will take on new
members.

While many institutions will play a role in Europe's further integration,
President Clinton said that "only NATO has the military forces, the
integrated command, the broad legitimacy and the habits of cooperation that
are essential to draw in new participants and respond to new challenges."

The partnership will create a framework in which former Eastern Bloc states
and others not now members of NATO can participate with NATO members in
joint military planning, training and exercises.  The Partnership for Peace
will not alter NATO's fundamental mission of defending NATO allies from
attack.  But it will open the door to cooperation with all of NATO's former
adversaries, including Russia, Ukraine and the other newly independent
states of the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe.

In President Clinton's words, "freedom's boundaries must now be defined by
new behavior, not old history."  That new behavior will depend on the
growth of democracy that has already begun in Europe's former Communist
states.  That is why the transatlantic community must commit itself to
helping democracy succeed.

As President Clinton said, "We should not foreclose the possibility of the
best possible future for Europe, which is a democracy everywhere, a market
economy everywhere, people cooperating everywhere for mutual security.  We
can guard against a lesser future," said President Clinton, "but we should
strive for the best future."

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