*EPF316 05/01/2002
Grossman Sees Prospect of "Robust Enlargement" in NATO Membership
(Senators, administration witnesses, seek redefinition of alliance role) (840)

By Ralph Dannheisser
Washington File Congressional Correspondent

Washington -- The State Department's under secretary for political affairs says he believes that a number of applicant nations will meet the standards for NATO admission in time for the Prague summit in November.

Marc Grossman told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee May 1 that, while he is "not ready to name names," he sees "a consensus forming around President Bush's view that we ought to have as robust an enlargement as possible" when current members of the alliance consider the issue at that time.

Underlining the depth of interest in gaining NATO membership, the ambassadors of six nations seeking admission -- Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia -- were in the audience as the committee heard from Grossman, Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith and other witnesses at a hearing on the future of the organization.

In opening statements at the hearing, both Chairman Joseph Biden (Democrat, Delaware) and Senator Richard Lugar (Republican, Indiana), a former chairman of the committee, stressed the need to consider not only enlargement of the alliance but its proper role in a post-September 11 world -- and the witnesses readily agreed.

Biden set the theme when he averred that "the war on terrorism does require a re-examination of the rationale for NATO -- and how it should adapt to meet new challenges."

But more broadly, Biden said, "no one should doubt that NATO - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- remains absolutely critical to the security of the United States."

Along similar lines, Lugar cited some remaining uncertainties, both in the Bush administration and among Alliance officials, as to NATO's future mission and capabilities. "What do we want NATO to do in the future? I believe that this issue will and should be a central, if not the central, issue at the Prague summit," he said.

Lugar said this would be particularly true "if real-world events in the Middle East or in Iraq make it a central issue in European-American relations this fall.

"Thus, the question is whether the United States will lead in embracing this kind of reform agenda or not. If U.S. policy wants to produce a strategic shift of this magnitude, then, in my view, there will never be a better opportunity for the Bush administration to initiate the process than the Prague summit," the senator declared.

Feith, who is the Pentagon's under secretary for policy, responded in his own opening remarks that "we plan to use the Prague summit to improve the alliance -- to make it more capable militarily, better able to secure the peace and more tightly knit across the Atlantic."

While both Grossman and Feith restated the administration's threefold agenda for Prague -- "new capabilities (to meet emerging new threats), new members (from among European democracies), and new relationships (with Russia, Ukraine and other partners)" -- Feith put special stress on the issue of improving military capabilities of NATO allies.

"NATO's military forces are the essence of the alliance's essential function: common defense. But the notorious 'capabilities gap' between the United States and its European and Canadian allies continues to grow," the defense official said. "If this divergence is not reversed, it will impede the allies' ability to operate with U.S. forces in the future and will, ultimately, weaken the alliance's political cohesion."

Thus, Feith said, "our first goal at Prague must be to begin to remedy the capabilities deficiency within NATO." Toward this end, he said, allied leaders will be asked to commit to "specific measures and definite timelines to fix shortfalls" in four priority areas: nuclear, biological and chemical defenses; platforms for transporting alliance forces swiftly to wherever they are needed; communication and information systems; and modern weapons systems "that will enable allies to make first-tier contributions to combat operations."

Addressing the enlargement issue, Biden stressed the need for potential NATO members not only to meet military criteria, but also to demonstrate a commitment to democratic values. "In particular," the chairman said, "ugly remnants of wartime fascism must be totally -- and permanently suppressed."

Biden expressed concern over a recent reemergence of "demonstrations of anti-Semitism." A key voice on NATO issues in the Senate, Biden declared that if he were to conclude a country was not doing everything possible to squelch such manifestations, "I would be part of a one-man band" to keep it from membership in the alliance.

But all his references to specific applicants were positive:

Biden said that Slovenia "has been ready for several years."

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania recently "have made great strides toward qualifying," and Slovakia "has made similar progress, and if it elects a democratic government in October, it should be a strong candidate," he said.

As for Romania and Bulgaria, Biden said they "are working hard to meet the NATO norms. Their case is strengthened both by their strategic geographic location and by their exemplary support for the anti-terrorism campaign since September 11th."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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