Article from "The European" April 10-16, 1997

"NATO Enlargement and Russia" By Javier Solana I am convinced that Europe today faces a historic opportunity. We have the chance to recast European security and put in place the foundations of a stability which will endure well into the next century. The responsibility for seizing this chance is a collective one. Institutions and individual states alike have their contributions to make. Real progress is being made. A few months ago, under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation, the political leaders of all the states of the Euro-Atlantic area met and agreed to develop a new security model for the 21st century, based on the principle of cooperation and free of the antagonisms of the past. The European Union is continuing the essential process of political and economic integration in Europe and is preparing to enlarge. Other institutions, such as the Council of Europe and the Western European Union, have also been an important part of a general process of Europe coming together. The key point - and this is what makes this a formative time - is that the aims of our institutions are compatible. We are all going in the same direction and each organisation is part of the process of creating a new security architecture, which will close the book on Yalta and ensure against the emergence of new divisions. In July, at a Summit in Madrid, NATO will be making decisions with far-reaching implications for European security as a whole. Our agenda itself is a sign of how much NATO has changed, and is changing. We will develop Partnership for Peace, strengthen the European security and defence identity within NATO, and agree upon the essential features of a new military structure, optimised for peacekeeping and crisis management. We will build up our relations with Ukraine, and strengthen ties across the Mediterranean. Amidst this broad and global picture of the summit agenda, the public spotlight has focused on two issues: NATO's enlargement and NATO's future relationship with Russia, both of which will have a profound and positive impact in order to build a secure, stable and cooperative Europe is to be realised. NATO has been preparing to accept new members since January 1994, with a commitment made at the NATO Summit. This July, we intend to invite one or more countries to start accession negotiations. Our aim is for new members to join by 1999 - NATO's 50th anniversary year. I welcome the recent momentum enjoyed by the public debate on NATO enlargement. Public understanding and support are essential to the success of opening up NATO to new members. Indeed if there is a great tendency to highlight the alleged difficulties and negative consequences of enlarging NATO, generally far less attention is brought to the undoubted benefits. NATO's enlargement should not be considered as an event on its own. It is part of the evolution of Europe's political and security framework. If we are truly to create a Europe without dividing lines, then successful established institutions like NATO and the EU must offer a real prospect of membership to those who are legitimately asking to join. Enlarging NATO will bring strategic benefits to the whole of Europe. Accepting new members helps remove one of the perennial sources of instability on this continent. Historically, when the security status of Central and Eastern Europe has been left unclear, the resulting uncertainty has exerted a strong and dangerously destabilising influence on the whole of Europe. Building confidence and a sense of security in this area will be of benefit to everyone. Moreover, it is difficult to see how this region can develop to its full potential without being anchored to stable, established democratic organisations. To keep NATO as a closed shop would be to keep those countries imprisoned in their past, and implicitly to accept a European security system based on outdated lines of demarcation. Opening NATO to new members is therefore a sound investment in Europe's future stability. The incentive of joining the Alliance has already had positive results. With the clear prospect of joining NATO before them, many countries have resolved problems with their neighbours on good relations and have instituted democratic reforms of their military forces. By moving to the next stage of the enlargement process in July, the Allies will maintain the momentum of these developments, and help our Partners to become real actors of their future. NATO's enlargement will demonstrate that those countries which at Yalta had their destinies chosen for them, will, in the next century, be shaping their own destinies as free and independent states. It is both a moral as well as a self-serving obligation that we have towards the new democracies. They want to belong to the Alliance because it will start a new chapter in their process of transformation. We want them in because it will add to the stability of our continent. One persistent argument used against NATO enlargement is its possible alienating effect on Russia. A number of commentators appear to believe that somehow we have to "choose" between NATO enlargement and Russia. They suggest that we can't have both: new members and a new relationship with Russia. This is a false choice, based on a very narrow view of security in Europe. It assumes that developing a stable and constructive relationship with Russia will always be problematic. This is wrong. Russia is a prominent member of the OSCE and already has close links with the EU, the Council of Europe and the G7. It is natural that, as Russia finds its place in the new Europe, its links with NATO should also develop and intensify. Constructive, cooperative relations between us is in our mutual interest and in the interest of all other states in the Euro-Atlantic area. In recent years NATO and Russia have drawn closer together. In Bosnia our military have worked together very well, with a Russian general stationed at our military HQ in Mons for coordination purposes. In Brussels we have had 28 formal meetings at Council level with the Russians in recent years, and countless other meetings. And for several months now, I have been developing with the Russians a document which intends to put our relationship on an entirely new base. It will set out the principles and the mechanisms of a permanent relationship and identify areas of future cooperation. One of the proposals is to create a permanent Joint NATO-Russia Council where we can consult regularly and launch joint initiatives. Among the remaining difficulties, none seem insurmountable. Many of Russia's problems with NATO's enlargement stem from a misunderstanding of the Alliance and our military structure. We have responded to Russian concerns in an open and very constructive way. We have clarified the Alliance's position on nuclear weapons: NATO has no intention of stationing nuclear weapons on the territory of new members. The Alliance has also informed the Russians that we are ready to discuss further reductions in the levels of conventional equipment permitted nationally under the CFE Treaty. Moreover, NATO has stated concerning its conventional force posture that "in the current and foreseeable security environment, the Alliance will carry out its collective defence and other missions by ensuring the necessary interoperability, integration and capability for reinforcement rather than by additional permanent stationing of substantial combat forces." In short, we have been clarifying our intentions about our future force posture and have proposed a relationship which recognises Russia's weight and responsibility as a major European power. With the level of transparency on military matters that we are proposing, Russia should have no reason to consider NATO's enlargement as a threat to it and its place in the making of European security. However, this is a two-way process. We insist that the relationship be a reciprocal one, in which Russia also will make clear its own efforts to revise its military doctrine and reduce conventional and nuclear forces. If progress continues as it has, we hope to conclude the agreement before July. The document will be signed at the highest level both on Russia's and NATO's side. It will bind Russia and NATO into a relationship which will, in itself, develop and intensify. The development of our relationship with Russia, like the enlargement process itself, is part of a wider transformation of NATO that will be good for Russia, good for NATO, and good for the whole of Europe.