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"

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY THE SECRETARY GENERAL
AT THE PRESENTATION TO PARTNERS ON THE ENLARGEMENT STUDY
THURSDAY, 28TH SEPTEMBER 1995

I would like to welcome all of you to this
presentation on NATO's Enlargement Study.

I extend a particular welcome to government
representatives who have travelled from their respective
countries' capitals for this briefing.

Throughout the last months we have been
working here at NATO on an internal study - tasked by
NATO Foreign Ministers at their meeting in December last
year - in which we examined the questions related to the
inclusion of new members into our North Atlantic
Alliance. At their Summit meeting here in Brussels in
January 1994, the Heads of State or Government of the 16
NATO countries reiterated the Alliance's commitment to
enhancing security and stability in the whole of Europe.
They reaffirmed that the Alliance, as provided for in
Article 10 of the Washington Treaty, remains open to
membership of other European states and that they would
expect and would welcome the inclusion of new members
as part of an evolutionary process, taking into account
political and security developments in
the whole of Europe.

Enlargement, when it comes, will be part of a
broad European security architecture based on true
cooperation throughout the whole of Europe.

Today we are presenting to all our 26
Cooperation Partners, as already envisaged by Allied
Foreign Ministers last December, the results of our
internal study in a spirit of transparency.

This is a very important document for NATO and
its member countries as it addresses the enlargement
issue in a comprehensive and carefully considered way.
The enlargement of the Alliance will be a gradual,
deliberate and transparent process.

It is also a document which sets
perspectives for those who want to join and
reassures others.

This process is not directed against any
country. Enlargement is aimed at extending stability
and security in the Euro-Atlantic area.

Our study is another important step forward in
an historic and dynamic process which began at the NATO
summit meeting in London in July 1990. At that time,
the upsurge of democracy across Central and Eastern
Europe had wrought dramatic changes in the European
political and security situation. A new era of
opportunity to banish old divisions and establish
enduring security and stability in a Europe whole and
free had been opened. Throughout the five years
since, NATO has been working steadily towards this end
by reaching out through partnership and cooperation to
the other European states.

The North Atlantic Cooperation Council,
created at NATO's initiative in 1991 and NATO's
partnership for peace, established by our summit in
1994, have already become prominent, permanent features
of the evolving European security architecture. They
help Europe grow together and develop common habits of
behaviour. When NATO, as one of the cornerstones of
stability and security in Europe, invites other European
countries to become allies this will be a further step
towards the Alliance's basic goal of enhancing security
and stability throughout the Euro-Atlantic area.

The study we are presenting today 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.

New members will enjoy all the rights and
assume all obligations of membership under the
Washington Treaty; and will need to accept and conform
with the principles, policies and procedures adopted by
all members of the Alliance at the time that
new members join. New members will be expected to
share the roles, risks, responsibilities,
costs and benefits of membership. NATO enlargement will
extend to new members the benefits of common defence and
integration into European and Euro-Atlantic
institutions.

When NATO invites other European countries to
become allies, this will enhance stability and security
for all countries in the Euro-Atlantic area by:

- encouraging and supporting democratic reforms,
including civilian and democratic control over
the military;

- fostering cooperation, consultation and
consensus;

- promoting good-neighbourly relations, in the
whole Euro-Atlantic area;

- increasing transparency in defence planning
and military budgets and thus confidence among
states;

- strengthening the Alliance's ability to
support the work of the OSCE, including
peacekeeping under its responsibility or the
authority of the UN;

- strengthening and broadening the
Trans-Atlantic partnership.

NATO will remain a purely defensive alliance,
whose fundamental purpose is to preserve peace in the
Euro-Atlantic area, in the interest of all, and to
provide security for its members. A larger NATO will
threaten no one. NACC and PfP will remain vital for
strengthening relations with partners which may be
unlikely or may not wish to join the Alliance early or
at all.

The addition of new members to the Alliance
will be a parallel process with, and will complement
that, of the European Union. All full members of the
WEU are also members of NATO, a linkage which remains
essential. Enlargement of NATO, the EU and WEU should,
therefore, be compatible and mutually supportive
processes. Each will contribute significantly to
extending the security, stability and prosperity enjoyed
by members of these organisations to other like-minded
democratic European states. An eventual congruence of
European membership in NATO, the European Union and the
WEU would have positive effects on European security.

At the same time, the Alliance is striving to
develop a stable, strong, active and constructive
relationship with Russia as one cornerstone of a new,
inclusive and comprehensive security structure in
Europe. The Alliance has affirmed again and again that
Russia has an important contribution to make to European
stability and security commensurate with its weight and
responsibility as a major European, international and
nuclear power. The Alliance will continue to work to
develop and strengthen a far reaching, transparent
cooperation with Russia based on mutual respect, benefit
and confidence. This is not only in the interest off
Russia and of NATO countries, but also in the interest
of all states in the OSCE area.

I hope that our study will help allay concerns
about NATO enlargement in Russia and to dispel
misperceptions which have contributed to those concerns.

The study does not address specific countries
as potential new members nor the question of the timing
of such a decision. That is for NATO countries to
decide, in the future, by consensus and on a
case-by-case basis.

Individual presentations on the study will be
available to Partners on request in the weeks
immediately ahead. When NATO Foreign Ministers meet in
Brussels this December, they will assess the results of
our presentations and consult on the way forward.

Let me conclude in underscoring that the
Alliance, as set out in the North Atlantic Treaty 46
years ago, will continue to ""contribute toward the
further development of peaceful and friendly
international relations by strengthening their free
institutions, by bringing about a better understanding
of the principles upon which these institutions are
founded, and by promoting conditions of stability and
well-being"".

We look forward to further cooperation and
progress towards strengthening our Euro-Atlantic
community of states and democratic values.

"