27 October 1997
(Speech to Atlantic Club of Bulgaria) (3970) Sofia -- Ambassador Robert E. Hunter told the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria that "the door to NATO membership will remain open so long as there are European countries ready and willing to shoulder the responsibilities of NATO membership." In his October 20 speech on "NATO in 2000 and Beyond," Hunter, the U.S. permanent representative on the North Atlantic Council, said he could not predict "when the next moment will come to invite countries to join NATO.... But the pledge of that open door, that progressive membership, that drawing fully into Alliance membership of those countries deeply dedicated and deeply working to be part of our world and part of the security of this Continent -- that pledge is real and that time indeed will come." He described the Alliance's goals for the next century: to keep the United States "engaged in the security of Europe as a European power"; to preserve what was achieved in the last 50 years, including the creation of a "European Civil Space"; to "help provide stability in the center of this Continent, as well as security, confidence, predictability"; and fourth, to involve Russia in the process of integration as well. "We seek to help the people of Russia succeed in its democratic experiment, its experiment to create a market economy, to bring Russia out of its 80-year self-imposed isolation, to play its full and legitimate part in European security." And Hunter also described a fifth goal: bringing permanent peace and stability to Bosnia. "I am pleased to say that we did manage in 1995 to bring peace to Bosnia.... If we all work with the people of that country and they work for themselves, this effort is bringing to a country which has suffered so much, and which so recently had so little promise, a chance for real hope and a chance for a lasting peace here in the Balkans." The ambassador told his Bulgarian audience that "few if any countries have matched what you have done in Partnership for Peace, and my country and yours are working together on a wide variety of activities and initiatives in the political field and also in the military field. These are all steps, all taken together, which are bringing you toward your rightful destiny as one of the great members of the Euro-Atlantic world, sharing, contributing to the same security that we all enjoy and wish to build in the future." Following is the text of Ambassador Hunter's speech as delivered: (Begin text) "NATO IN 2000 AND BEYOND" Ambassador Robert E. Hunter U.S. Permanent Representative on the North Atlantic Council Address at Atlantic Club of Bulgaria Sofia, Bulgaria October 20, 1997 (as delivered) AMBASSADOR HUNTER: Mr. Vice President, Mr. Deputy Foreign Minister, Ambassador Bohlen, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen -- It is a great honor and privilege for me to be here at this extraordinary time in a free, independent, sovereign, and democratic Bulgaria. What an extraordinary phrase about such an extraordinary people and a great country that has achieved so much in such a short period of time. And, may I say a special word to my friend, the head of the Atlantic Club, Solomon Passy, for his perseverance, not just in getting me to Sofia, for he worked so long to give me this honor, but also the efforts that he has made on behalf of your country and in your country's relationship with NATO. I know all of us at NATO are deeply grateful to him for what he has done here, and I think the people of Bulgaria owe him a great debt of gratitude, since he has done so much to ensure that you are able to take your rightful place with the nations of the West. So, may I ask you to single him out with a round of applause for our friend Solomon. (Applause) What an extraordinary time, not just in Bulgaria, but also for us at NATO. In the last few years, because of the efforts of all 16 of our Allies and of people in countries such as this, we have fundamentally transformed the nature of the Atlantic Alliance. We are doing this, as our Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, has recently said, "with a clear goal." She said: "We want to work with you in making this a region where democracy flourishes, human rights are respected, prosperity is growing, and good neighborly relations are so common as to be routine." Looking at what this country has achieved in leadership in this region of Europe, I know that all those aspirations are indeed coming to pass. At NATO four years ago, under the leadership of President Clinton, we set ourselves four great goals. Number one: to keep the United States deeply and permanently engaged in the security of Europe as a European power, because this is fundamentally in our interests to do so and equally part of American beliefs and values -- which, I am pleased to say, are now fully shared by the great people of Bulgaria. This is not just a commitment of President Clinton, but has broad and deep bipartisan support in the United States. The effort was begun by President Bush and has been carried on by President Clinton, with solid backing of both political parties in both houses of Congress and throughout the land of the United States. We are here. We are here to stay, and we do it because it is right and because it is part of fundamental interests shared across the Atlantic. The second great goal at NATO is to preserve what we achieved in the last 50 years in the Western part of this Continent. Uniquely among alliances in world history, when the original cause and purpose for NATO came to an end, with the success for all the peoples of Europe in the end of the Cold War, NATO did not come to an end. The 16 Allies came to the fundamental conclusion that they would continue to do their defense together, that they would not re-nationalize their security, that they would continue to pursue in the post-Cold War era the same values and the same goals that they pursued throughout the Cold War and for the same basic human and democratic purposes. In the process, during the last 50 years, something else happened that was truly remarkable and truly without precedent. The 15 countries of the European Union did nothing less than abolish war as an instrument of their relations with one another. It is today unthinkable that those countries in the West who were so engaged in the First and Second World Wars would ever again get into conflict with one another. They have created genuinely what I call a European Civil Space, which has moved beyond the terrible tragedies of the 20th century and offers real promise for the 21st. And it is our ambition that this European Civil Space should move progressively Eastward on this Continent, so that all the peoples prepared to work with us will have the chance to fulfill their destinies as part of this same basic community of values and common purpose. This you may say is old business for NATO. The exciting prospect is in the new business. A fundamental goal of NATO -- our third great goal -- is to help provide stability in the center of this Continent, as well as security, confidence, predictability, and a fundamental role for people here with those of us in the Transatlantic world. We have witnessed in recent years the re- emergence into history of so many peoples in the center of Europe, who were for so long denied the opportunity to pursue their national destinies. But at the same time, we at NATO, in a very special sense, want to take the peoples of the center of Europe out of history -- a history in which conflict either originated here or in which the countries in this region became the victims. We want to move beyond that history, so that never more will this part of Europe see the suffering, the tragedies, the conflicts that were visited upon it, not once but several times in this century. Our fourth goal at NATO, which may be the most difficult of all, is to reach out to the people of Russia -- the country whose future could well be most decisive for all of us in determining whether we will indeed live in a future of peace and security. We seek to help the people of Russia succeed in its democratic experiment, its experiment to create a market economy, to bring Russia out of its 80-year self-imposed isolation, to play its full and legitimate part in European security. It is striking that, as we, the NATO Allies, work here in Central Europe, every single leader of this region has also counseled us to reach out to Russia, to see if it too will play its part -- playing by the rules but deeply engaged. As we pursued these four goals, we have also pursued a fifth: for NATO to take basic responsibility for helping to bring peace and to end conflict in the most serious and tragic fighting in Europe since the end of the Second World War. I am pleased to say that we did manage in 1995 to bring peace to Bosnia. We were able to send an Implementation Force to that country, now the Stabilization Force. That was 671 days ago. The peace is being preserved, and I am gratified to report that, in that entire period there has not been a single combat fatality -- a truly remarkable achievement. If we all work with the people of that country and they work for themselves, this effort is bringing to a country which has suffered so much, and which so recently had so little promise, a chance for real hope and a chance for a lasting peace here in the Balkans. All 16 NATO Allies are in the NATO-led Stabilization Force, as well as 15 members of the Partnership for Peace including, I am pleased to say, troops from this great country as well. Those are the four, or may I say the five, great purposes that we are trying to achieve in NATO. It is nothing less than trying to create a Europe that is whole and free. It is nothing less than to erase the old divisions in this Continent and to draw no new lines of division. It is nothing less than to try to heal the wounds, not just of one war in this century, the Cold War, but in fact, of all three great wars and the divisions that they created across Europe. It is nothing less, if we can achieve it, to abolish the very concept -- the balance of power -- which organized life so unsuccessfully in Europe for 350 years. It is to extend the principles of inclusion and cooperation across this Continent where, for the first time in all of Europe's existence, there is a possibility of building a security from which, at least in some measure, every country can benefit -- so that, whether one stands in Chicago, or in Frankfurt, or in Sofia, in Budapest, in Warsaw, in Prague, in Bucharest, the Baltic States, Kiev, or Moscow, what we at NATO do can be seen as helping to promote a common security. In the process we at NATO recognize no grey zones, no buffer states, and no spheres of influence. But this Europe of freedom and security is something we have to build together if we to fulfill the destiny we now have before us. This year, NATO went through a remarkable 44-day period of transformation. It began in the Elys‚e Palace in Paris on the 27th of May, when the President of the Russian Federation, Mr. Yeltsin, joined the heads of states and government of the 16 NATO Allies, and they undertook a solemn commitment in the NATO-Russia Founding Act. Only a few short years ago, it would have been incredible for the Russian President to accept a direct relationship with NATO and a direct obligation shared with NATO to try to build a strategic partnership. That 44-day period came to an end on the 9th of July in Madrid, when the heads of state and government of 44 countries -- including your President -- met together in a remarkable conclave. President Clinton looked around the room and recognized that, a scarce 10 years before, it would have been impossible for those 44 leaders to have come together for any purpose, much less the purpose of seeing whether this generation can build a security, a democracy, and a prosperity in Europe that had eluded every other generation before throughout Europe. During that 44-day period, NATO undertook eight great efforts, each important in its own right, and all together -- together -- offering the possibility of building security for the future. The 16 allies decided to invite the first three countries to join NATO. These were countries that had been most deeply engaged in Partnership for Peace, which had the broadest consensus in the Alliance for membership and the clearest capacity at this moment to gain the approval of all 16 parliaments. NATO membership, after all, is not something decided by ambassadors or even by heads of state and government, but by the parliaments and the peoples of all allied states. But inviting three countries to join was only one element of what we did at that moment. Equally important -- and I know how important this is here -- the NATO Alliance decreed that the door to NATO membership will remain open: open to those countries which wish to join and which are striving to be part, a full part, of the NATO Alliance. American policy is very clear. The door to NATO membership will remain open so long as there are European countries ready and willing to shoulder the responsibilities of NATO membership. It is that simple and that precise and that clear and that deep a commitment. To that end, specific mention was made at Madrid of Southeastern Europe and of the Baltics. Specific commitments were made in terms of continued individual intensified dialogues and a major review to take place in April 1999. I cannot tell you, today, because no one has yet decided, when the next moment will come to invite countries to join NATO or who at that next moment that could be; I cannot tell you because it has not been discussed and not decided. But the pledge of that open door, that progressive membership, that drawing fully into Alliance membership of those countries deeply dedicated and deeply working to be part of our world and part of the security of this Continent -- that pledge is real and that time indeed will come. For those who did not have the opportunity on this occasion, the answer is not "No"; it is simply "not yet," with the future very clearly beckoning. At the same time, during the period I have described, NATO took other major steps. We have taken perhaps the most successful venture in many years at NATO -- the Partnership for Peace -- and made it even stronger. As you know, the Partnership has two great goals and ambitions. The first is to enable countries which want to join NATO to make the transformation necessary in order to be Allies. There is no secret. Any country that wants to join NATO can and will and must be a strong member of the Partnership. At the same time, the Partnership for Peace is designed for those countries either that did not join now, that may join later, or that may decide that they do not want ever to apply for NATO membership to have the closest possible relationship with us: to have their representatives at NATO Headquarters; to have officers at the top NATO military command; to adopt the NATO standards; to train with NATO; to exercise with us; to go to Bosnia with us; and indeed to do virtually everything that NATO Allies do short of actual membership and the actual guarantee of the Washington Treaty itself. We are gratified that 27 countries have joined the Partnership for Peace and -- if I may say so here in Sofia -- we are deeply gratified that, from the very beginning, this country has been one of the leaders in Partnership for Peace and that you are clearly set on the track of doing all those things necessary to be fully a part of the Western security community. We have also created a new Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. We are replacing the old North Atlantic Cooperation Council. The EAPC, as we call it, will give countries a greater chance to be involved with us; a greater chance to bring their ideas for cooperation for security building to us and to work together to help make those basic decisions with regard to Partnership for Peace. We took four other steps, as well. One I have mentioned: the NATO-Russia Founding Act, which has created a NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council, which met at the level of foreign ministers in New York about three weeks ago with Mr. Primakov, Madam Albright, and 15 other NATO allied foreign ministers. This is an effort to indicate to Russia that it has a place in Europe, to indicate to Russia that other things that we are doing with other countries, whether through the Partnership or elsewhere, are not directed against any country and not directed against Russia. At the same time, we have completed a charter with Ukraine and created a new NATO-Ukraine Commission which held its first meeting in Brussels last week. We have also gone through a major restructuring of the Alliance, in order to turn NATO away from being an instrument of the Cold War and to being an instrument of the future -- fully able to protect the security of every single allied state, present and future, but at the same time fundamentally committed to the problems of peace-making and peace-keeping that have preoccupied us most recently in Bosnia. And we have worked out a new relationship between NATO and the Western European Union that will enable America's European allies to take a greater share of responsibility and a greater sense of authority in creating our common security. These eight efforts together can indeed add up to a real and lasting and inclusive security, not just for the 16 allied countries, not just for the 19, along with others that will one day join NATO, but also for all other countries which wish to be members of the Partnership for Peace or which wish also to join NATO as full members. It is remarkable, as I reflect upon this, what this country has done to respond to the opportunities and, yes, the challenge posed by NATO. The transformation of Bulgaria in terms of your politics, your economics, your fundamental attitudes of society has been breathtaking and a major example for other countries in Europe. You are playing a critical role in the Atlantic Treaty Association, which only recently met in this capital and, I'm pleased to say, that our friend Solomon Passy is a vice president of that organization. You are playing a major role in one of the initiatives taken by my country: the South-East European Cooperative Initiative. Only recently, you hosted my Secretary of Defense and several other defense ministers at the South-East European Defense Ministerial. You have recently proposed a new Black Sea Initiative, within the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, which my country fully endorses, and we'll help you get the endorsement of other Black Sea countries. Few if any countries have matched what you have done in Partnership for Peace, and my country and yours are working together on a wide variety of activities and initiatives in the political field and also in the military field. These are all steps, all taken together, which are bringing you toward your rightful destiny as one of the great members of the Euro-Atlantic world, sharing, contributing to the same security that we all enjoy and wish to build in the future. As I've said and as we all know -- what an extraordinary time this is. But it is not for us just to look at what has been achieved in recent years, or even just to look at what we at NATO and other institutions like the European Union are promising to do. It is a time in which all of us have a continued responsibility to make all of this come true. At NATO, we look back to what happened half a century ago, to what a few far-sighted individuals began to create: the European structure of institutions. We look back a mere 50 years at the proposal of the Marshall Plan, which enabled countries that had suffered the ravages of World War II to build or rebuild democracy and to recreate their economies. There was a great tragedy at that time because of the decisions of Joseph Stalin: the work of the Marshall Plan came to a halt half-way down the Continent. We are now being given a second chance, something that rarely happens, to undo the harm done by Stalin and to invite the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and beyond to join with the rest of Europe, to take their place and to contribute and to gain from that great promise. We cannot just look back at what was achieved. The great physicist, Isaac Newton, 300 years ago said that he stood upon the shoulders of giants. I think, today, that we all also stand upon the shoulders of giants, but equally we have a responsibility. Half a century from now, our successors will look back at us -- and that includes everyone sitting in this room and beyond. And those who come after us will judge us as we judge those of previous generations. Were we equal to the task? Were we equal to the opportunity that we have been given uniquely in European history? Did we do what we had to do at the moment we were called? I am confident that history will judge us kindly, because of what I have seen happen in the 16 countries of NATO, what I have seen in Partners for Peace, and none more than the efforts of the people of Bulgaria. If everyone does his or her job as well as you have been doing yours, then I think history will be kind to us and the future will offer extraordinary prospects. Thank you very much for this opportunity. SOLOMON PASSY. Thank you, Ambassador Hunter. It is a tribute to what you have had to say that we have all sat here in rapt attention even though there is no heat in the hall and it is near freezing. AMBASSADOR HUNTER. Let me just say thank you very much for the opportunity to be with you. What I see in this audience tonight are the people of a great country who are taking your rightful place in the West, and we welcome that and we welcome you. Now, on behalf of Ambassador Bohlen and myself, let me say this: If you sat through all the cold and the dark of the Cold War to reach for where you are now, we can surely sit in this hall. Frankly, we don't feel the cold at all, we only feel the warmth of the greeting and the warmth in the hearts of the people of Bulgaria. Thank you. (End text)