[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 12 (Monday, March 23, 1998)]
[Pages 472-474]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

March 20, 1998

    Thank you. Thank you very much, Secretary Albright, General Shelton, 
General Sandler, Mr. Berger, Senator Roth, to the members and 
representatives of the Joint Chiefs, members of the diplomatic corps, 
and other interested citizens, many of whom have held high positions in 
the national security apparatus of this country and the military of our 
country. We're grateful for everyone's presence here today.
    I especially want to thank the Members of the Senate who are here. I 
thank Senator Roth, the chairman of the NATO observer group, Senator 
Moynihan, Senator Smith, Senator Levin, Senator Lugar, Senator Robb, and 
Senator Thurmond. Your leadership and that of Senators Lott, Daschle, 
Helms, and Biden and others in this Chamber has truly, as the Secretary 
of State said, made this debate a model of bipartisan dialog and action.
    The Senate has held more than a dozen hearings on this matter. We 
have worked very closely with the Senate NATO observer group. And I must 
say, I was immensely gratified when the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee voted 16 to 2 in support of enlargement.
    Now, in the coming days the full Senate will act on this matter of 
critical importance to our national security. The admission of Poland, 
Hungary, and the Czech Republic to NATO will be a very important 
milestone in building the kind of world we want for the 21st century.
    As has been said, I first proposed NATO enlargement 4 years ago, 
when General Joulwan was our commander in Brussels. Many times since, 
I've had the opportunity to speak on this issue. Now a final decision is 
at hand, and now it is important that all the American people focus on 
this matter closely. For this is one of those rare moments when we have 
within our grasp the opportunity to actually shape the future, to make 
the new century safer and more secure and less unstable than the one we 
are leaving.
    We can truly be present at a new creation. When President Truman 
signed the North Atlantic Treaty 49 years ago next month, he expressed 
the goal of its founders in typically simple and straightforward 
language: to preserve their present peaceful situation and to protect it 
in the future. The dream of the generation that founded NATO was of a 
Europe whole and free. But the Europe of their time was lamentably 
divided by the Iron Curtain. Our generation can realize their dream. It 
is our opportunity and responsibility to do so, to create a new Europe 
undivided, democratic, and at peace for the very first time in all 
history.
    Forging a new NATO in the 21st century will help to fulfill the 
commitment and the struggle that many of you in this room engaged in 
over the last 50 years. NATO can do for Europe's East what it did for 
Europe's West: protect new democracies against aggression, prevent a 
return to local rivalries, create the conditions in which prosperity can 
flourish.
    In January of 1994, on my first trip to Europe for the NATO summit, 
we did take the lead in proposing a new NATO for a new era. First, by 
strengthening our alliance to preserve its core mission of self-defense, 
while preparing it to take on the new challenges to our security and to 
Europe's stability; second, by reaching out to new partners and taking 
in new members from among Europe's emerging democracies; and third, by 
forging a strong and cooperative relationship between NATO and Russia.

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    Over the past 4 years, persistently and pragmatically, we have put 
this strategy into place. NATO has shifted to smaller, more flexible 
forces better prepared to provide for our defense in this new era, but 
also trained and equipped for other contingencies. Its military power 
remains so unquestioned that it was the only force capable of stopping 
the fighting in Bosnia. NATO signed the Founding Act with Moscow, 
joining Russia and history's most successful alliance in common cause 
for a peaceful, democratic, undivided Europe. We signed a charter to 
build cooperation between NATO and Ukraine. We created the Partnership 
For Peace as a path to full NATO membership for some, and a strong and 
lasting link to the alliance for others. Today, the Partnership For 
Peace has exceeded its mission beyond the wildest dreams of those of us 
who started it. It has more than three dozen members.
    Now we're on the threshold of bringing new members into NATO. The 
alliance's enlargement will make America safer by making NATO stronger, 
adding new forces and new allies that can share our security burdens. 
Let me be very clear: NATO's core mission will remain the same--the 
defense of the territory of its members. The addition of new members 
will strengthen and enhance that mission. In pursuing enlargement, we 
have made sure not to alter NATO's core function or its ability to 
defend America and Europe's security.
    Now I urge this Senate to do the same, and in particular, to impose 
no constraints on NATO's freedom of action, its military decisionmaking, 
or its ability to respond quickly and effectively to whatever challenges 
may arise. NATO's existing treaty and the way it makes defense and 
security decisions have served our Nation's security well for half a 
century.
    In the same way, the addition of these new members will help NATO 
meet new challenges to our security. In Bosnia, for example, Polish, 
Czech, and Hungarian soldiers serve alongside our own with skill and 
professionalism. Remember, this was one of the largest, single 
operational deployments of American troops in Europe since World War II. 
It was staged from a base in Taszar, Hungary. It simply would not have 
happened as swiftly, smoothly, or safely without the active help and 
support of Hungary.
    As we look toward the 21st century, we're looking at other new 
security challenges as well--the spread of weapons of mass destruction 
and ballistic missile technology, terrorism and the potential for high-
tech attacks on our information systems. NATO must be prepared to meet 
and defeat this new generation of threats, to act flexibly and 
decisively under American leadership. With three new members in our 
ranks, NATO will be better able to meet those goals as well.
    Enlargement also will help to make Europe more stable. Already, the 
very prospect of membership has encouraged nations throughout the region 
to accelerate reforms, resolve disputes, and improve cooperation.
    Now, let me emphasize what I've said many times before and what all 
NATO allies have committed to: NATO's first new members should not be 
its last. Keeping the doors open to all of Europe's new democracies will 
help to ensure that enlargement benefits the security of the entire 
region, not just the first three new members.
    At last summer's summit in Madrid, NATO agreed to examine the 
process of enlargement at our next summit in 1999. Neither NATO nor my 
administration has made any decisions or any commitments about when the 
next invitations for membership should be extended, or to whom. I have 
consulted broadly with Congress on decisions about the admissions of the 
first three members. I pledge to do the same before any future decisions 
are made. And of course, any new members would also require the advice 
and the consent of the United States Senate.
    For these reasons, I urge, in the strongest terms, the Senate to 
reject any effort to impose an artificial pause on the process of 
enlargement. Such a mandate is unnecessary and, I believe, unwise. If 
NATO is to remain strong, America's freedom to lead it must be 
unfettered and our freedom to cooperate with our other partners in NATO 
must remain unfettered. A unilateral freeze on enlargement would reduce 
our own country's flexibility and, perhaps even more important, our 
leverage, our ability to influence our partners. It would fracture 
NATO's open-door consensus; it would undermine further

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reforms in Europe's democracies; it would draw a new and potentially 
destabilizing line, at least temporarily, in Europe.
    There are other steps we must take to prevent that division from 
reemerging. We must continue to strengthen the Partnership For Peace 
with our many friends in Europe. We need to give even more practical 
expression to the agreements between NATO and Russia and NATO and 
Ukraine, turning words into deeds. With Russia and other countries, we 
must continue to reduce our nuclear stockpiles--and we thank you, 
Senator Lugar, for your leadership on that--to combat the dangers of 
proliferation, to lower conventional arms ceilings all across Europe. 
And all of us together must help the Bosnian people to finish the job of 
bringing a lasting peace to their country. If you think about where we 
were just a year ago in Bosnia, not to mention 2 years ago, not to 
mention 1995, no one could have believed we would be here today. It 
would not have happened had it not been for NATO, the Partnership For 
Peace allies, the Russians, all of those who have come together and 
joined hands to end the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the Second 
World War.
    Now we have to finish what America started 4 years ago, welcoming 
Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic into our alliance. If you look 
around at who is in the room today, you can see that they are more than 
willing to be a good partner. They will make NATO stronger; they will 
make Europe safer; and in so doing, they will make America and our young 
people more secure. They will make it less likely that the young men and 
women in uniform who serve under General Shelton and the other generals 
here, and their successors in the 21st century, will have to fight and 
die because of problems in Europe.
    A new NATO can extend the blessings of freedom and security in a new 
century. With the help of our allies, the support of the Senate, the 
strength of our continued commitment, we can bring Europe together--not 
by force of arms, but by possibilities of peace. That is the promise of 
this moment. And we must seize it.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 12:46 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Gen. Henry H. Shelton, USA, 
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Maj. Gen. Roger Sandler, USA 
(Ret.), executive director, Reserve Officers Association.