ACCESSION NUMBER:320012
FILE ID:EUR503
DATE:01/07/94
TITLE:NATO SUMMIT SEEN APPROVING PARTNERSHIP PLAN (01/07/94)
TEXT:*94010703.EUR
*EUR503   01/07/94 *

NATO SUMMIT SEEN APPROVING PARTNERSHIP PLAN
(Administration officials at background briefing)  (430)
By Jim Shevis
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- Two senior administration officials say they believe the
January 10-11 NATO summit meeting in Brussels will approve President
Clinton's plan for a partnership between the Alliance and the former Warsaw
Pact countries.

Speaking on background, the officials told journalists January 7 that the
plan -- called "Partnership for Peace" -- will make the countries of
Central and Eastern Europe more secure and closer to the West.

"It is a balanced approach toward engaging NATO with the East," said one.
"The summit also will make it clear that NATO is open to evolutionary
change. That NATO should expand as part of an evolutionary process has been
part of our foreign policy from Day One."

President Clinton is scheduled to make a major speech in Brussels on United
States-European relations January 9 on the eve of the NATO summit,
outlining the benefits and requirements of the Partnership for Peace.

Under the partnership plan, prospective NATO members must prove themselves
capable of assuming the responsibilities of membership before formally
joining the 16-nation military alliance.

The two officials, who briefed reporters on President Clinton's upcoming
trip to Europe, said they hope that Russia will participate in the
partnership plan.

"In fact, we hope all nations of the former Soviet Union will participate in
Partnership for Peace," one said.

The two officials said the United States has been discussing the partnership
plan with Russia at the very highest levels for some time.
1
"We've received very positive indications from Russia that it will become a
member of Partnership for Peace in the future," one official said.

The administration has also had "a good response" from other countries of
Central and Eastern Europe, the official said.  "We expect there'll be very
widespread participation."

After Brussels, Clinton is scheduled to visit Moscow, Prague, Minsk and
Geneva in his first European trip as president.

In Moscow, the president will urge the Russians to continue their efforts
for market reform, the administration officials said.

"He'll enunciate clearly a continuation of U.S. support for reform," said
one.  "It's the key U.S. foreign-policy objective.

"He will also talk with President Yeltsin on how economic reform is going to
proceed, given the outcome of the December 12 elections," the official
said.

"It is our hope that it will proceed swiftly and aggressively."
Russian voters registered a strong protest against reform last month, giving
ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky about 20 percent of the vote.

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