[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10889]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            NATO ENLARGEMENT

  (Mr. BEREUTER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, today this Member rises to inform the 
House that the United States Senate a few minutes ago by a vote of 96-0 
voted to give its advice and consent to U.S. ratification of the NATO 
enlargement protocols. The lines drawn across Europe at Yalta are gone. 
By its action today on the 58th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, 
the Senate has approved the membership of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, 
Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in the North Atlantic 
Alliance.
  According to the Constitution, it is the Senate that must give its 
advice and consent to treaty protocols. But, Mr. Speaker, this Member 
must note the leading role that this Chamber has played in promoting 
the admission into NATO of the new democracies of Central and Eastern 
Europe. The decision to admit former Communist countries from Central 
and Eastern Europe into the Atlantic Alliance is one of the great 
success stories in American foreign policy since the end of the Cold 
War. It is a bipartisan success, promoted by Republicans and Democrats 
in the Congress and by both the Clinton and Bush administrations. The 
seven nations across the face of Eastern and Central Europe that join 
NATO are democracies that will help build a stronger North Atlantic 
Alliance. Having fought so long and hard to gain their freedom, these 
nations know how very precious freedom is.
  I ask all the states of the NATO nations to give their approval under 
their national processes as Canada, Norway and now the United States 
have done.

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