20 October 1997
(Process already working in Central and Eastern Europe) (550) By Rick Marshall USIA Staff Writer Alpbach, Austria -- Austrian Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel and former U.S. National Security Advisor Anthony Lake made strong cases for adding new members to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) at the opening session of a special conference here on NATO enlargement. "This is an immense strategic opportunity," Lake told the New Atlantic Initiative/European Forum Alpbach conference. "We can already see the process working." Indeed, the process of adding new members is creating a "growing zone of confidence" in Central and East Europe, Lake noted. Just as membership in the Alliance helped France and Germany reconcile their differences after World War II, the prospect of NATO membership has encouraged the nations of Central and Eastern Europe to conclude ten separate border agreements over past few years, as countries like Romania, the Czech Republic and Hungary bury disagreements that have existed for generations. Such actions would not have happened were it not for the positive influence generated by the Alliance and the prospects of future membership, Lake suggested. NATO's sense of vigor has helped revitalize U.S. ties with Europe, while strengthening the process of democratization and the establishment of civil control over the military in Central and Eastern Europe, Lake noted. At the same time, anti-Russian rhetoric has cooled and ties with Moscow have improved as new consultative mechanisms like the Joint Partnership Council take hold. "We are on the right path," Lake observed. Schuessel's remarks reflected the growing interest Austria has shown in NATO and European security issues. As several speakers at the conference noted, this is being translated into growing public support within Austria for possible NATO membership. While he stopped short of directly calling for NATO membership, Schuessel noted that the Gulf War "taught us that there can be no classic neutrality when the international community decides to react against an aggressor." Furthermore, the Bosnian experience demonstrated "how exposed our geopolitical position at the heart of the new Europe can be." Such experiences help to explain why Austria "wants to see the development of functioning European security structures, and why the Austrian government agrees that our country should take part in such structures as a full-fledged member," Schuessel commented. As for adding new members to the Alliance, Schuessel said that "President Clinton was right when he made the point that, by enlarging, NATO will do for Europe's East what it did for Europe's West after World War II -- provide the kind of climate necessary for freedom and prosperity to survive and to grow and flourish." Asked to evaluate the chances that the United States would ratify the addition of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to NATO when the Washington Treaty comes up for amendment next spring, Lake predicted the Senate would ratify the move, as it has "strong bipartisan support." As for allied burden-sharing, a matter that was consistently raised during the conference, Lake repeated what he, the administration and the Congress have repeatedly said over the past few months, that "it will be very important that the Europeans meet the costs" and pay their fair share.