01 May 1998
(The Senate has done the right thing at the right time) (530) Seoul -- Secretary of State Albright says she is "deeply gratified" to learn that the US Senate has given its advice and consent to the admission of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to NATO. "The Senate has done the right thing at the right time," she said in a written statement from Seoul, South Korea before departing May 1 for Mongolia and London. "For this is a moment of relative peace in Europe, a time when freedom is ascendant. Now we can be that much more confident that peace and freedom will endure." Following is the State Department text: (begin text) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesman April 30, 1998 STATEMENT BY SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT SENATE RATIFICATION TO NATO ENLARGEMENT I am deeply gratified to learn that the United States Senate has given its advice and consent to the admission of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to NATO. The Senate has done the right thing at the right time. For this is a moment of relative peace in Europe, a time when freedom is ascendant. Now we can be that much more confident that peace and freedom will endure. For me, it is also a moment of injustice undone, of promises kept, and of a unified Europe begun. These three countries have borne the brunt of this century's most terrible wars; they have been the victims of its greatest tyrannies. Yet they have always maintained their allegiance in spirit to the family of freedom-loving European nations that NATO embodies and exists to defend. Thanks to President Clinton's leadership and the Senate's action, they will now belong to our family in fact. We will no longer fear for their destiny, but instead rely on them to stand with us whenever there is a threat to our common destiny. I am also gratified today because the Senate's decision has implications that go well beyond the immediate question of NATO enlargement. The debate about a larger NATO could well have provided an opportunity for skeptics to praise isolationism. Instead, it has given the American people and the Congress a chance to help bury it. Today's vote sends a message to our old and new allies that America will continue to defend its interest in the peace and security of Europe. It will reassure all of Europe's new democracies that we are not going to treat them as second class citizens in the future simply because they were subjugated in the past. It is a signal that America will defend its values, protect its interests, stand by its allies, and keep its word. Most of all, it demonstrates that Americans of both political parties and from every part of our country are willing to support a principled and purposeful American role in Europe and the world. The Administration and the Congress worked hand in hand to shape and advance this policy, and I hope that this spirit of constructive cooperation will continue to prevail as we face new foreign policy tests in the years ahead. (end text)