BUDAPEST CSCE SUMMIT
                REMARKS AT LUNCHEON
       BY SECRETARY GENERAL, MR. WILLY CLAES


          The profound changes in Europe over the past few
years have given rise to serious security challenges. 
While all-out war is not conceivable in today's Europe, we
are nevertheless faced - besides the  risis in the former
Yugoslavia - with regional conflicts and ethnic tensions,
which, if unresolved and left to fester, could have a
disastrous cascading effect and threaten the stability and
security of Europe.  
          The handling of these crises is a decisive test
for our Governments and for Organisations such as the UN,
the CSCE, NATO.  The conflict in the former Yugoslavia has
continued now for 3 years - and we must draw a number of
lessons. The most important one is that if we want to play
an effective role in preventive diplomacy and crisis
management and gain the support of our publics and
parliaments, we need to show determination, unity of
purpose and a willingness to take action.  

          This is the real challenge.  The complexity of
these conflicts and the demands they produce call urgently
for a cooperative approach involving mutual support among
our Organisations.  We must develop and extend efficient
patterns of cooperation among all relevant institutions. 
It is a vital task if we are to turn our words into
reality and build an effective European security
architecture that can really deal with the new type of
conflicts - like the crisis in the former Yugoslavia -
that we now face in Europe.

          As is well-known, NATO has put its resources and
experience at the disposal of the UN, and  is ready to do
the same for the CSCE, to support their peacekeeping and
crisis management tasks - of course taking into account
the lessons learned in the former Yugoslavia.

          We have developed new patterns of cooperation
with a number of other European States through the North
Atlantic Cooperation Council and the Partnership for Peace
as a means of preserving and projecting peace and
stability to our East. 
Cooperation in the framework of Partnership for Peace is
developing rapidly; 23 countries so far have joined. 
Partnership for Peace figures very high on the Alliance's
priority list and all sixteen members are committed to
maintaining the momentum and make a success out of it. 
These efforts should be regarded as complementary to CSCE
activities as well as supportive of them.

          At every step we have ensured our cooperative
activities will be transparent.  Growing NACC/PfP
cooperation in the field of peacekeeping has taken place
on the basis of complementarity and transparency.  This is
evidenced in the participation of the CSCE Presidency in
the ongoing work of our Ad Hoc Group on Cooperation in
Peacekeeping.  This Group has made significant progress in
developing commonly-shared principles and criteria for
peacekeeping and practical cooperation in preparing for
the carrying out of actual peacekeeping operations.  This
is an important task for both NATO and the CSCE.

          At the January Summit, NATO Heads of State and
Government declared that the Alliance, as provided for in
Article 10 of the Washington Treaty, remains open to
membership of other European States in a position to
further the principles of the Treaty and to contribute to
the security of the North Atlantic
area, as part of an evolutionary process.  The Alliance
has now embarked on an internal examination to determine
how NATO will enlarge, the principles to guide this
process and the implications of membership.  An extensive
study will begin and we will present the results to
interested Partners prior to our next meeting in
Brussels in the late autumn of 1995.  Enlargement, when it
comes, will threaten no one and will enhance stability and
security for all of Europe.

          NATO is not alone in facing an ambitious agenda.

Other Organisations - the CSCE, of course - have also
taken decisions to improve the capacity to respond to the
new security challenges I mentioned earlier.  Cooperation
and effective interaction between our Organisations is
essential.  The decisions the CSCE will take at this
Summit in this regard will mark another important step in
the evolution of our relations.  The Alliance is
prepared to contribute its share to the new security
architecture that we are shaping through our
Organisations.