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- New members will be full members of the
Alliance, enjoying all the rights and assuming all
the obligations under the Washington Treaty. There
must be no "second tier" security guarantees or
members within the Alliance and no modifications of
the Washington Treaty for those who join. Possible
new members should prepare themselves on this basis.
Although this Chapter describes the principal rights
and obligations of new member states, some more
specific rights and obligations are covered
elsewhere, in Chapters 2,
3 and 4.
A. What will be Expected Politically of New Members
- Commitments entered into by new member
states should be the same as for present Allies,
including acceptance of the principles, policies and
procedures already adopted by all members of the
Alliance at the time that new members join.
Willingness and ability to meet such commitments, not
only on paper but in practice, would be a critical
factor in any decision to invite a country to join.
- Bearing in mind that there is no fixed or
rigid list of criteria for inviting new members to
join the Alliance, possible new member states will,
nevertheless, be expected to :
- Conform to basic principles embodied in the
Washington Treaty: democracy, individual liberty and
the rule of law;
- Accept NATO as a community of like-minded
nations joined together for collective defence and
the preservation of peace and security, with each
nation contributing to the security and defence from
which all member nations benefit;
- Be firmly committed to principles,
objectives and undertakings included in the
Partnership for Peace Framework Document;
- Commit themselves to good faith efforts to
build consensus within the Alliance on all issues,
since consensus is the basis of Alliance cohesion and
decision-making;
- Undertake to participate fully in the
Alliance consultation and decision-making process on
political and security issues of concern to the
Alliance;
- Establish a permanent representation at
NATO HQ;
- Establish an appropriate national military
representation at SHAPE/SACLANT;
- Be prepared to nominate qualified
candidates to serve on the International Staff and in
NATO agencies;
- Provide qualified personnel to serve on the
International Military Staff and in the Integrated
Military Structure if and as appropriate;
- Contribute to Alliance budgets, based on
budget shares to be agreed;
- Participate, as appropriate, in the
exchange of Allied intelligence, which is based
entirely on national contributions;
- Apply NATO security rules and procedures;
- Accept the Documents which provide the
basis for the existing policies of the Alliance. (1)
- The Alliance expects new members not to
"close the door" to the accession of one or more
later candidate members, as referred to also in
paragraph 30 of Chapter 2.
B. What Prospective New Members will need to do
Politically to Prepare Themselves for Membership
- Prospective members will have to have:
- Demonstrated a commitment to and respect
for OSCE norms and principles, including the
resolution of ethnic disputes, external territorial
disputes including irredentist claims or internal
jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, as
referred to also in paragraph 6 of Chapter 1;
- Shown a commitment to promoting stability
and well-being by economic liberty, social justice
and environmental responsibility;
- Established appropriate democratic and
civilian control of their defence force;
- Undertaken a commitment to ensure that
adequate resources are devoted to achieving the
obligations described in section A and C.
C. What Will Be Expected Militarily of New Members
- New members of the Alliance must be prepared to share the roles, risks,
responsibilities, benefits, and burdens of common security and collective
defence. They should be expected to subscribe to Alliance strategy as
set out in the Strategic Concept and refined in subsequent Ministerial
statements.
- An important element in new members' military contribution will be
a commitment in good faith to pursue the objectives of standardization
which are essential to Alliance strategy and operational effectiveness.
New members should concentrate, in the first instance, on interoperability.
As a minimum, they should accept NATO doctrine and policies relating
to standardization and in addition aim at achieving a sufficient level
of training and equipment to operate effectively with NATO forces. PfP
cooperation, including the Planning and Review Process, can help to
improve the interoperability of Partners' forces with those of NATO
Allies and aspiring new members should be expected to participate actively
in PfP activities; but these are limited in scope to forces made available
by Partners for cooperation in peacekeeping, humanitarian and SAR missions,
and related training and exercises.
D. What Prospective New Members Will Need to do
Militarily to Prepare Themselves for Membership
- The ability of prospective members to
contribute militarily to collective defence and to
the Alliance's new missions will be a factor in
deciding whether to invite them to join the Alliance.
- New members will need to adapt themselves
to the fact that NATO's strategy and force structure
are designed to exploit multinationality and
flexibility to provide effective defence at minimum
cost. NATO policy is therefore heavily dependent on
standardization, particularly in the areas of
operations, administration and material. Current
NATO standardization priorities include commonality
of doctrines and procedures, interoperability of
command, control and communications and major weapon
systems, and interchangeability of ammunition and
primary combat supplies.
- There are at present over 1200 agreements
and publications that new members should undertake to
comply with. Compliance should be an evolutionary
and controlled process to enhance Alliance
operational effectiveness. Although national
participation in standardization is optional, there
are a number of areas, such as communication and
information systems and measures to facilitate
reinforcements where military necessity requires
participation. One way of achieving improved
interoperability might be for new members to select
units that can act as cornerstone units around which
the rest of their forces can be developed with
priority being given to maximizing these units'
interoperability with existing NATO units. To
determine the minimum requirements necessary for
operational effectiveness, a review of the STANAGs
and Allied Publications is already under way. A
country-by-country assessment of prospective new
members' standardization will also be required, based
on levels of standardization displayed during the
full range of PfP military and defence activities. A
proposal should be developed by the Alliance in
consultation with the prospective new member so that
it will understand what will be expected of it. In
addition, NATO schools and training will need to be
developed so that the forces of new members can
achieve interoperability with NATO in a reasonable
time, and new members can adapt to NATO doctrine
across a broad spectrum of activities.
- Although the funding of new members'
enhanced interoperability is their responsibility, it
poses important challenges for the Alliance as a
whole. There is a military imperative to achieve the
minimum level of interoperability required for
military effectiveness as quickly as possible. There
is also a political imperative to demonstrate
intra-Alliance cohesion, to ensure that new members
feel that they are participating fully in the
Alliance and to enable them to make an equitable
contribution to collective defence at an early stage.
In principle, both objectives should be achieved
within the existing arrangements for funding Allies'
development, procurement, infrastructure and other
costs (i.e. using national resources and the Security
Investment Programme as appropriate).
Footnote:
- These include, in particular:
- The Agreement on the Status of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, National Representatives and
International Staff (Ottawa Convention, 1951);
- The NATO Agreement on the Mutual Safeguarding of
Secrecy of Inventions relating to Defence, and for
which applications for Patents have been made (Paris,
1960);
- The Agreement between the Parties to the North
Atlantic Treaty regarding the Status on their Forces
(London, 1951);
- The NATO Agreement on the Communication of
Technical Information for defence Purposes Brussels,
1970);
as well as
- The Strategic Concept;
- Summit Declarations and NAC decisions in
Ministerial and permanent session as reflect in NAC
Communiques, including those issued in Oslo in June
1992 and Brussels in December 1992 in which the
Alliance undertook to support, on a case-by-case
basis in accordance with its own procedures,
peacekeeping activities under the responsibility of
the OSCE and peacekeeping operations under the
authority of the UN Security Council, including by
making available Alliance resources and expertise;
- Documents on cooperation between NATO and any
partner state already agreed with new member(s) join
the Alliance,
recognizing that Alliance polices evolve over time
and in the light of new circumstances.
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