17 Mar. 2004

Making room for seven new members News 15/03/2004 - NATO Inauguration of New Building at NATO Headquarters on Wednesday, 17 March 2004 02/03/2004 - NATO Seven invitees on the verge of NATO membership Background Focus on 7 Invitees Enlargement Opinions 17/03/2004 - NATO Speech by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on the occasion of the Inauguration of the new NG building at NATO headquarters Multimedia Audio file of the speech given by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at the inauguration of the NG building (MP3/1631kb) Video file of the inauguration of the new NG building at NATO Headquarters (WMV/2991kb) High resolution photos of the inauguration NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer today inaugurated a newly constructed extension to the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, which will house the delegations of the seven new Allies. Seven new countries - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia - are expected to formally become NATO members by the end of this month, when they deposit of their instruments of accession to the Washington Treaty with the United States Government. The United States State Department is the depository of the Washington Treaty, which created the Atlantic Alliance. Their accession will be marked by a special flag-raising ceremony at NATO Headquarters on 2 April. “First of all, I want to salute the new members and their representatives here today. I want to commend them for their considerable efforts – in many areas – to prepare for membership,” said Mr. de Hoop Scheffer, speaking in the cafeteria of the new building, “With their new offices, they can now be even more present, fully staffed and better equipped to deal with their important new roles and responsibilities in NATO.” The ceremony was attended by the Ambassadors and staff members of NATO and invited countries.