ACCESSION NUMBER:367929
FILE ID:EUR309
DATE:11/16/94
TITLE:NATO OUGHT TO BE, AND WILL BE ENLARGED, SENATOR SAYS (11/16/94)
TEXT:*94111605.PFE
*EUR309   11/16/94
NATO OUGHT TO BE, AND WILL BE ENLARGED, SENATOR SAYS
(Heflin sees support for present foreign policy) (250)
By Rick Marshall
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- We all take the position "that NATO ought to be enlarged, and
it will be enlarged," veteran Democratic Senator Howell Heflin said
November 15.

Four nations will probably be admitted to the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization ahead of any others, Heflin said in a brief interview between
sessions at the North Atlantic Assembly, which was meeting here for its
40th annual session.

Heflin listed Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and "maybe Slovakia" as
the four nations likely to enter the 16-nation alliance in the near to
mid-term.  He stressed, however, that each nation would have to be dealt
with "on an ad hoc basis."  The timing for their entry is being determined
by the Partnership for Peace program, he noted.
1
Asked whether NATO should go beyond the four nations he mentioned, Heflin
said that he would have to "see all the details  -- and they haven't been
defined."

Asked whether the recent elections, which resulted in the Republican Party
gaining control of both houses of Congress, would cause significant change
in U.S. foreign relations, the Alabama senator said that he doubted that
major changes would ensue.  The future chairmen of the House and Senate
Foreign Relations Committee -- Rep. Benjamin Gilman, and Sen. Jesse Helms
-- have both been generally "supportive of present policy," he said.

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