NATO to Achieve Strategic Transformation at Prague Summit

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 20, 2002

NATO to Achieve Strategic Transformation at Prague Summit

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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is to convene its epoch-making summit meeting this week in Prague, the Czech Republic, where the military alliance will achieve its strategic transformation by enlargement, enhanced military capabilities and strategic reforms of its military structure.

At the meeting, most of the 10 candidate countries are widely believed to be invited for membership, the biggest ever enlargement plan in NATO's 53-year history.

Meanwhile, NATO leaders will also try to adjust the military relations with major partnership countries like Russia, Ukraine and some others.

Ever since its creation in 1949, NATO has undergone altogether four rounds of enlargement, increasing its members from 12 to 19. With the announcement of new invitees at the Nov. 21-22 Prague summit, NATO would extend its sphere of influence to as many as seven Central and East European countries, said NATO sources who declined to be named. The invitees are scheduled to become full NATO members as early as 2004.

After this enlargement, NATO will "share its borders" with Russia. The imminent enlargement has been regarded as the most important for NATO in both its scale and significance.

Equally important, this enlargement will have great impact on the European security structure because NATO will inevitably adjust the trans-Atlantic relationship at the summit and push its focus of attention further eastward to Central and Eastern Europe.

Besides enlargement, enhancement of military capability and coordination in anti-terrorism efforts are also believed to be high on the meeting's agenda.

The widening trans-Atlantic gap in military capabilities has been a major factor impeding the efficiency and flexibility of NATO's collective military missions and there has been a loud cry for its enhancement in recent years, especially after the Kosovo war in 1999.

To further improve its military capabilities, NATO will urge member states to increase military spending; to contribute in their own ways to the military capability by pooling their limited military resources; to improve command and control of military forces by radical reforms in the military structure; and to create a rapid reaction force at the proposal of the United States.

Through the above measures, NATO will shift its security strategy from collective defense to active attack, defining the future orientation of the military alliance. This drastic change in strategy will surely have profound impact on the world security landscape.

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson has said the Prague meeting, a summit of enlargement and transformation, would be a turning point in NATO's security ability. It is therefore the most significant NATO summit convened in a new security environment at the beginning of the new century, which deserves to be viewed froma strategic and global perspective.

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