NATO Aspirants Agree to Combat Terrorism

NATO Aspirants Agree to Combat Terrorism
Marian Chiriac - IPS 4/8/03

Seven ex-communist states set to join NATO -- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, and Slovenia -- have agreed to fight international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction more effectively, as well as to work in closer cooperation to combat illegal migration, cross-border crime and human trafficking.

BUCHAREST, Apr 7 (IPS) - Seven ex-communist states set to join NATO agreed over the weekend to fight international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction more effectively.

The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, and Slovenia's foreign minister met informally at Snagov near Bucharest to discuss their role in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) after the upcoming enlargement of the military alliance.

Officials said they would work on closer cooperation in fighting illegal migration, cross-border crime and human trafficking. They also agreed to support one another in joining the military alliance and for ratification of their accession protocols by the 19 NATO member states.

The Eastern European states were invited to join NATO at an alliance summit in Prague last year. The accession protocols were signed in Brussels late March. The move sought to erase political fault lines that scarred Europe for half a century.

The war on Iraq was not on the meeting agenda, but it was discussed at length on the sidelines. The NATO aspirants expressed the hope that relations between Europe and the United States would not be impaired by the war, and that both will continue to cooperate on security issues despite the current divergence.

The NATO candidates offered relatively modest military help to the U.S.-led war by opening up airspace and air bases on the Black Sea shore. Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia offered non-combat troops to the U.S. effort to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"We are not interested in choosing between NATO and the European Union (EU)," said Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase. "Our future actions should not go against either reunified Europe or trans-Atlantic links."

Latvian Prime Minister Einars Repse said: "As a group of countries set to join both NATO and the EU, we see our role as strengthening links with all Western democracies."

The seven former communist countries have faced criticism for backing the U.S. from some EU states, mainly France and Germany.

Analysts say that the support from the ex-communist countries to the U.S. would not undermine their efforts to join the EU. The Balkans could become a springboard for future military operations because the focus of "older" Europe will shift from the east to the south in the post-cold war era.

The Baltic states Slovakia and Slovenia are due to join the EU next year. Bulgaria and Romania are set to join in 2007.

"Even if in the short run there are some tensions and frictions one can take the line that Eastern Europe's geo-strategic and political contribution to Europe has increased, not diminished," says Jonathan Eyal of the Royal United Services Institute in London.

"I am quite sure that none of the Western governments that now oppose the war in Iraq will take any further action to undermine NATO or the further enlargement of EU."