13 November 1997

BIPARTISAN SENATE SUPPORT CITED FOR NATO ENLARGEMENT

(Helms-Biden letter of endorsement welcomed) (680)

By Susan Ellis

USIA Congressional Correspondent



Washington -- Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms
and ranking minority member Joseph Biden have issued a joint letter to
their Senate colleagues calling NATO enlargement "the most important
foreign policy initiative for our country in many years...an issue
that transcends party politics."


The letter was welcomed November 12 by senior State Department
officials who briefed journalists at USIA's Foreign Press Center on
progress toward admitting Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic to
NATO membership.


Jeremy Rosner, special adviser to the president and secretary of state
for NATO enlargement ratification, said he expects "a very vigorous
discussion and debate" of the issue in Congress and by the American
public, despite "encouraging signs" of support from the U.S. Senate.


He added, however, "there is a high level of comfort" in all segments
of American society with the three countries' candidacies and with
"the prospect of them becoming allies." The administration "is
confident," he said, that when the matter comes to a vote in early
1998, "sufficient Senate support will be there for it to be ratified."


Ronald D. Asmus, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and
Canadian affairs, who joined Rosner in the briefing, told questioners
that studies conducted by the Clinton administration and by NATO on
the costs of admitting the three new countries reached different
conclusions because they were "measuring two different sets of costs."


He said the U.S. study defines "a level of capability that it makes
sense for the alliance, new and old members, to have in this benign
security environment, where we do not face an immediate threat." The
ongoing NATO study, he noted, will only analyze the common funded
costs, a portion of the costs the U.S. study defined.


Rosner added that NATO officials have found that the infrastructure of
the three prospective new member states "is more readily usable than
was previously assumed," thus lowering costs in the NATO study.


Asked whether the cost of enlargement might influence a second round
of NATO admissions, Rosner said the broad debate this time is over why
enlargement makes sense. "There is a process of education going on,
both for members of Congress and the public, that will lay the
foundation for future rounds of enlargement in what I think will be a
positive way."


On the subject of Bosnia, and whether decision-making on keeping SFOR
forces there might affect the NATO ratification timetable, Rosner said
the two debates "clearly will intersect," since they both concern NATO
and European security, but they don't "affect the timing of each
other."


The important thing, he said, "is that we get both of the policy
decisions in both of the debates right; that we do what needs to be
done in Bosnia and that we do what needs to be done on NATO
enlargement. And that's how we're proceeding."


Addressing concerns over Russia, Rosner said the Permanent Joint
Council, which includes Russia, "will not have undue influence or a
veto over NATO's North Atlantic Council," and that even as NATO
enlargement proceeds, "Russia is moving ahead with reforms and
security cooperation on such areas as arms control."


Rosner said he is confident of a "successful outcome" on NATO
ratification and alluded to comments by Senators Helms and Biden in
their letter "that there does seem to be a consensus here in the U.S.
in favor of European engagement, in favor of the notion that Europe is
of vital interest" and that NATO is an "effective and essential
security organization for us."


After a North Atlantic Council meeting of foreign ministers December
16 in Brussels, where the accession protocols will be signed, and a
second meeting of the Permanent Joint Council "as set up by the
NATO/Russia Founding Act," Asmus said, he expects a U.S. Senate vote
on the treaty perhaps as early as March of next year.