SPEECH BY SECRETARY GENERAL WILLY CLAES
                AT THE MEETING OF THE 
             ATLANTIC TREATY ASSOCIATION
               TORONTO, 7 OCTOBER 1995



Ladies and Gentlemen,

          I am very pleased to speak to you today in
Toronto for your annual general assembly.  And I
congratulate the Atlantic Treaty Association for having
chosen Canada as the venue for its annual conference.  A
strong and vibrant transatlantic link continues to be the
life-blood of our Alliance.  NATO is the institutional
anchor that keeps the United States, Canada and Europe
working together for our common safety and to protect our
common freedoms.  In Toronto we are reminded that, though
much on this side of the Atlantic is new, the values that
underpin this society have a more distant origin and a
much wider application.

          Through the Atlantic Treaty Association, you
represent the community of values, the rock on which our
great Alliance is founded.  The Atlantic Treaty
Associations play a key role in keeping that rock solid
through your many initiatives and wide network of
personal contacts.  I pay tribute to you and your work,
particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, where demand
for information and contact with the Alliance continues
to grow. 

          Last year, when I spoke to you in The Hague, I
set out some of the areas in which I thought we should
make progress in the year ahead.  I mentioned
particularly our outreach to the countries of Central and
Eastern Europe, our relationship with Russia, and the
conflict in Bosnia.  Even though much has happened in the
past year, these issues remain at the top of our agenda.

          Last year, when I first took up my post as
Secretary General, I sensed a feeling of concern and
unease on both sides of the Atlantic.  This was mostly
because of Bosnia and the apparent failure of the
international community to end the conflict.  Today -
helped significantly by NATO's decisive intervention to
defend Sarajevo - we have before us perhaps the best
chance of a peace settlement in four years of conflict.

          I also found myself trying to convince people
that NATO was indeed making steady and important progress
in
bringing countries to our East closer to the Alliance. 
Today no one would doubt that we now have up and running
a unique and immensely successful Partnership for Peace
which is a permanent feature of our security landscape. 
And we are making steady progress towards an eventual
enlargement of NATO.

          Perhaps our relationship with Russia has not
progressed as far as I had hoped.  Mistrust of NATO
persists in Russia.  Nevertheless, Russia and NATO have
agreed on a very substantial programme of activities in
PfP whose implementation is now underway.  And we have
instituted meetings in a 16+1 format to address issues
beyond PfP.  But the key priority must be to overcome
that lingering mistrust.

          Today I would like to update you on each of
these key areas, because there have been major
developments in each since we last met.  I will begin
with our outreach activities. 

          At the basis of these activities is a question
of values.  Elbert Hubbard, an American writer of the
19th Century, once wrote that "morality is largely a
matter of geography".  By that he meant that where you
live in the world largely determines what you believe. 
Within the North Atlantic Alliance we have never believed
that values are largely a matter of geography.  We draw
together countries from both sides of the Atlantic, from
the very North and South of Europe, from the very West
and in the future from the East.

          L'OTAN, depuis sa creation, a ete la preuve
vivante de ce que les valeurs transcendent les frontieres
nationales. L'Alliance a ete creee non pas seulement
parce que les Allies se trouvaient confrontes a une
menace commune ou partageaient des interets strategiques.
Elle existe aussi parce que ses membres ont en commun
certaines valeurs dont ils ont reconnu qu'ils devaient
les defendre ensemble. Ces valeurs meritaient d'etre
protegees pendant la Guerre froide, chacun de nos pays
etant alors dispose a depenser des sommes tres
importantes pour creer et entretenir les moyens
militaires propres a decourager les menaces et
l'intimidation. Elles meritent plus encore d'etre
defendues aujourd'hui, puisque ceux qui les partagent
sont tellement plus nombreux et souhaitent fonder sur
elles la democratie que nous tenons pour acquise.

          La fin de la Guerre froide n'a pas seulement
marque la fin de la confrontation. Ce fut le debut d'un
vaste rapprochement, a l'Est et a l'Ouest, de personnes
dont l'affinite naturelle avait ete refoulee ou niee
pendant des decennies. Le resultat, c'est que nous
assistons en Europe a l'elargissement de cette communaute
de valeurs au-dela des frontieres geographiques actuelles
de l'Alliance.


          Les pays de l'ex-bloc sovietique n'ont pas
encore acheve le difficile processus de la
transformation; ils edifient leurs economies de marche et
mettent en place les fondements solides de democraties
prosperes et stables. Certains avancent plus vite que
d'autres, mais tous ont la meme aspiration: devenir
membre des institutions occidentales qui incarnent et
sauvegardent les valeurs que nous partageons, forger de
nouveaux liens economiques et politiques avec les pays de
l'Alliance atlantique et de l'Union europeenne. Bref,
pouvoir contribuer a renforcer la securite, la prosperite
et l'integration en Europe.

          L'OTAN a apporte, et continuera d'apporter, son
appui et son impulsion a ce processus de transformation.
Nous etions presents au tout debut de ce voyage long et
complique sur la voie de la reconstruction. En 1991, nous
avons etabli le Conseil de Cooperation Nord Atlantique,
mettant ainsi fin a des annees de division politique
entre l'OTAN et le Pacte de Varsovie. Le CCNA nous a ete
d'une aide precieuse pour negocier cette transition. Il
nous a donne un cadre dans lequel s'inscrit notre
cooperation pratique en constant developpement. Il nous a
aussi amene a nous rendre compte a quel point nous sommes
proches les uns des autres par nos valeurs comme par nos
interets.

          Cette cooperation pratique s'est trouvee
intensifiee et elargie par le Partenariat pour la paix,
lance en debut de 1994 dans le cadre du CCNA.
Aujourd'hui, 26 pays ont adhere au Partenariat. Nous
avons etabli des programmes specifiques pour aider nos
Partenaires, a titre individuel dans un large eventail de
domaines, selon les interets, les preferences et les
ressources de chacun. Un accent particulier a ete mis sur
le controle democratique des forces armees. Aucune
democratie ne serait etre stable ni fermement enracinee
si ces forces armees ne sont pas democratiquement
comptables et placees sous un controle approprie des
autorites civiles.


          Avec le Partenariat, nous avons cree un
dispositif unique en son genre de cooperation pratique
entre pays de traditions tres differentes en matiere de
securite. Il s'agit du seul programme qui reunisse des
pays aussi divers dans le cadre d'un processus d'une
telle intensite. Le Partenariat pour la Paix est
maintenant bien etabli comme element permanent d'une
Europe sans division.

          Let me move on to the question of NATO's
enlargement.  It is in part a consequence of the end of
the Cold War. A Europe without ideological or military
dividing lines will naturally grow together.  We see the
admission of new members as part of this process.  It is
a further step towards the Alliance's basic goal of
enhancing security and stability throughout the
Euro-Atlantic area, within the context of a broad
European security architecture based on true cooperation. 
NATO enlargement will extend to new members the benefits
of common defence and greater integration into European
and Euro-Atlantic institutions and help to protect the
further democratic development of new members.

          Within the past few weeks, we have completed
our  study on the "how" and "why" of enlargement and have
briefed Partners on it.  In a few days' time, NATO teams
will start visiting interested Partner countries to
respond to detailed queries concerning the content of the
study.  Rather than re-capping the main points, I will
confine myself to a few personal remarks on the nature of
the study and the way ahead.

          This December, NATO Foreign Ministers will
consider the next steps.  I cannot preempt that
discussion which, in any case, will have to take into
account the reaction of our Partners to the study.  But
we have made it clear that enlargement will be a gradual,
deliberate and transparent process.  We have to explain
the roles and responsibilities involved in membership,
its costs and risks as well as benefits.  New members
must know what to expect when they join the Alliance and
they must have time to prepare themselves.

          Why is this process gradual and deliberate? 
The answer is simple.  We have to get it right.  Let us
keep firmly in mind that enlargement, when it comes, will
be one of the most significant events in the European
security landscape.  It will help define the parameters
of European security for years to come, for it will have
an impact on all European nations, including those which
do not join NATO early or at all.  In answering the "how"
and the "why" of enlargement, the study identifies what
the Alliance and possible new members will need to do to
prepare for the eventual accession of additional states
to the Washington Treaty. 

          We are advancing steadily and surely towards
our goal, which was set out by our Heads of State and
Government at the Brussels Summit last year: extension of
the Alliance to democratic states to our East, as part of
an evolutionary process, taking into account political
and security developments in the whole of Europe.  By
taking in new members, we will be extending our
successful and long-standing community of values.  In
doing so, we have to ensure that membership for some is
not interpreted as a new division of Europe by others. 

          This brings me to Russia.  I believe firmly
that Russia has the same right and need for security as
do its neighbours in Central and Eastern Europe.  It
seeks to develop a functioning market economy.  It is
undertaking democratic reform.  We must give it every
chance for success.  We believe that the more Russia is
integrated within the European security architecture, the
more likely are the chances of success.

          Russia's search for stability and security is
legitimate, but we insist that it is accompanied by
respect for the rights and security concerns of
independent countries on its periphery.  We see her as a
valuable partner.  She has a hugely important
contribution to make to European stability.  That is why
in NATO we have invested a great amount of effort and
creative energy in developing a close and mutually
beneficial relationship with Russia.

          It is good news that Russia and NATO have
agreed a programme of joint activities within Partnership
for Peace.  Implementing it will do much to build a close
working relationship between our military forces.  What
is more, we have agreed with Russia to engage in a broad
enhanced dialogue well beyond PfP.  This will comprise
mutual information, consultation and also cooperation in
various fields of security.  Just last week we handed
over detailed proposals to Ambassador Churkin.

          We are very aware and concerned about the
growing negative reaction in Russia to the prospect of
eventual admission of new members to NATO.  I see it as
of paramount importance to dispel these fears.  I would
urge Russia to use the opportunity 

available constructively - to work with us in shaping the
security environment, to the benefit of all.

          I would like also to note the importance of 
Ukraine, which is striving against great odds to
transform and is adapting  to a post-Communist world. 
The enhanced relationship we recently agreed with Ukraine
underscores the value we attach to that country's
stability and independence.

          Whatever the future may bring in terms of new
members, and the deepening of NATO's relationships, there
will be times when we have to be prepared to stand up for
the values we believe in.

          In Bosnia, we have been doing just that.  We
have seen NATO act effectively and assertively under the
authority of, and in coordination with, the United
Nations.  For over four years, the values we believe in -
democracy, pluralism, tolerance - have been under great
threat right on NATO's doorstep.  For three years,
Sarajevo had been besieged and its inhabitants forced to
live the lives of prisoners in their own homes.  The fall
of the safe areas of Srebrenica and Zepa during the
summer months brought home the message that resolve and
action must be part of the international community's
strategy for finding a peace settlement in Bosnia.  The
UN and NATO agreed together that military force had to be
used with greater assertiveness to ensure respect for UN
Security Council resolutions.

          In Bosnia, the Alliance served notice that the
international community cannot continually be defied and
all rules of civilised conduct abandoned with impunity. 
NATO's intervention restored the credibility of the
international community.  The air campaign of the
Alliance - coordinated fully with the UN - against the
besieging Serb army has given hope to the inhabitants of
Sarajevo that their long ordeal is coming to an end.  The
Bosnian peace process is moving forward, and now there is
a real chance of a settlement.  The people of Bosnia
must, all of them, take the opportunity lying before
them.  NATO is ready to help in the implementation of a
peace settlement, and we are ready to do so with the
Russians and other nations that wish to contribute to an
implementation force.

          Let me now conclude.  I believe the security
landscape has changed significantly, and for the better,
in the past year.  The Alliance has been at the forefront
of that change.  We can be confident that the vision and
commitment of the Alliance to stability will continue to
be a driving force in changing fundamentally the shape of
European security.  There is still a long road to travel. 
But there is no doubt about our destination or our
ability to get there, fortified by a dynamic and
forward-looking transatlantic partnership. 

          We will succeed because the Alliance is unlike
any alliance in history.  It is held together not by
short-term military needs but by long-term, strongly-held
values.  We protected those values in the Cold War.  We
are now at the forefront in ensuring that they remain the
cornerstone of the new and undivided Europe of today.

          Thank you.