Prague Summit Defines NATO's Future Role

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, November 23, 2002

Prague Summit Defines NATO's Future Role

Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are determined to revamp the 53-year-old alliance with decisions made at the two-day summit which concluded in Prague on Friday.

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Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are determined to revamp the 53-year-old alliance with decisions made at the two-day summit which concluded in Prague on Friday.

These decisions include inviting seven new countries for membership, enhancing military capabilities and reorienting relations with third countries.

NATO's transformation in strategy is aimed at adapting itself to increasing security threats in a post-Sept. 11 world.

Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia were invited to join the 19-nation alliance, which will be expanded to a bloc of 26 members in 2004, as scheduled.

This move will be the largest round of enlargement in NATO's 53-year history. With the achievement of the enlargement, NATO will have a much larger strategic space and a new role to play in all European security affairs.

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said at the summit thatNATO's door was "still open to European democracies," indicating the military alliance's strong desire for further expansion of itssphere of influence politically and militarily.

United States President George W. Bush also pointed out at the beginning of the meeting that the enlargement would further strengthen NATO and enable it to play a bigger role.

Besides the eastward expansion, NATO leaders also agreed on a package of plans on enhancement of NATO's military capabilities.

The military alliance decided to set up a rapid response force,which would be deployed wherever needed to eliminate any potentialsecurity threats NATO may face in coming years.

The meeting also mapped out a detailed plan aimed at streamlining NATO's military command structure. The military alliance has for years complained about the clumsiness and inefficiency of its military command and has demanded ambitious reform.

NATO leaders also agreed to fulfill their commitment to wiping out the widening capability gap and improving NATO's military inter-operability and flexibility, which would help sharpen NATO'scutting edge and transform it from a traditional self-defense entity to an increasingly aggressive military bloc.

NATO's enlargement and the improvement of military capability would demand a corresponding adjustment of relations with third countries, especially Russia, after this landmark meeting.

At the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council meeting held on Friday,NATO leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further cooperation with Russia, the biggest of the 27 partnership countries. They emphasized the importance of the partnership initiatives launched at the Washington summit, in 1999, and reaffirmed their support for further vigorous implementation of these initiatives.

The next round of enlargement would enable NATO to further press the strategic space of Moscow to an extent that NATO would "share its borders" with Russia, calling for the need to adjust thebilateral ties.

Robertson has stressed on several occasions that the Prague summit is a meeting of both enlargement and transformation.

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