*EPF505 11/22/2002
NATO Leaders Conclude Prague Summit, Bush Flies to Russia
(Meeting refreshed spirit of democratic alliance, U.S. says) (560)

By Wendy Ross
Washington File White House Correspondent

Prague -- The two-day NATO Summit in Prague, the first such conclave in a country formerly behind the Iron Curtain during the U.S.-USSR Cold War, concluded midday November 22 following a meeting between the 19 NATO leaders with the leaders of more than 20 partner nations who make up the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.

These partner countries include nations such as the Baltic countries that have been invited to join NATO, others such as Croatia and Albania seeking to join, traditional neutrals like Sweden and Finland, and former Soviet states such as Kazakhstan.

President Bush spoke briefly at the meeting, but had to leave before it ended to fly to St. Petersburg where he was to meet later in the day with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. "I will tell my friend ... and the Russian people that they, too, will gain from the security and stability of nations to Russia's west," Bush said.

In other developments November 22, the new NATO-Russia Council met in Prague at the foreign ministers level, as did the NATO-Ukraine Commission, and President Bush participated in a group photo with the presidents of Albania, Macedonia and Croatia.

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, in remarks earlier to reporters, called the Prague Summit an important and historic meeting.

She cited the NATO invitation to seven former Soviet bloc nations -- Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia -- to join the alliance, as well as reforms designed to shift NATO's focus from its Cold War stance against the former Soviet Union to the new 21st century dangers posed by terrorism, rogue states and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The seven invitees are slated to become members of NATO in May 2004, after ratification by the parliaments of the 19 current members.

In addition, the NATO leaders agreed to create a 20,000-strong rapid reaction force, invest in new military equipment including ground surveillance planes, smart bombs and electronic jamming gear, and streamline the alliance's military command.

The summit communiqué said the leaders also committed themselves to transforming NATO's relationships with its partner countries.

The NATO leaders issued a separate four paragraph joint statement demanding that Iraq "fully and immediately" comply with a new U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Iraq give up its weapons of mass destruction or risk "serious consequences."

The leaders' statement said that "NATO allies stand united in their commitment to take effective action to assist and support the efforts of the U.N. to ensure full and immediate compliance by Iraq, without conditions or restrictions."

NSC Advisor Rice said the summit not only added to the military capability of NATO, but also "refreshed the spirit of this great democratic alliance."

As to the transformation of NATO for the future, Rice said many leaders at the Summit "spoke about September 11 as a new watershed, a new chapter in understanding the threats of the post-Cold War period -- understanding that any nation that loves freedom could have sustained the kind of attack that the United States did on September 11th; and that the countries that love freedom -- and NATO, as an alliance, of course, is dedicated to those values of freedom and liberty -- any nation that loves freedom has to be committed to dealing with terrorist threats, to dealing with threats of weapons of mass destruction."

(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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