EFFORT CONTINUES TO WIDEN NATO MEMBERSHIP RANKS.Byline: Steven Erlanger Steven J. Erlanger is an American journalist who has been the Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times since July 2004. Erlanger joined the Times in September 1987. The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Despite new uncertainties about the possible Russian reaction and the qualms of some NATO NATO: see North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO in full North Atlantic Treaty Organization International military alliance created to defend western Europe against a possible Soviet invasion. allies, the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. is pushing ahead with its plan to bring several former Soviet allies into NATO in 1999. NATO is to meet in December to set a date for a summit conference, now likely by July, that will name the first countries eligible for NATO membership. Though not final, the list is expected to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic Czech Republic, Czech Česká Republika (2005 est. pop. 10,241,000), republic, 29,677 sq mi (78,864 sq km), central Europe. It is bordered by Slovakia on the east, Austria on the south, Germany on the west, and Poland on the north. , though Slovenia and Romania are making strong cases to be included, senior American officials say. But the North Atlantic Treaty Organization North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established under the North Atlantic Treaty (Apr. 4, 1949) by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States. also is trying to figure out ways that countries left out of the first round of the NATO sweepstakes - in particular the Baltic nations and Ukraine - can feel safer from Russian pressure than they did before NATO decided to expand. ``The problem was never defining how to enlarge NATO, but what do you do with the countries left out of it,'' a senior official said. ``That's still a problem.'' While American officials are encouraged by the Russian security adviser Alexander Lebed's latest, less hostile public remarks about the coming enlargement of NATO, American officials do not fool themselves that Moscow has suddenly given up on its intermittently strident opposition. And many Western officials say they fear that the frail health of President Boris N. Yeltsin makes the Russian reaction less predictable than ever. Visiting NATO headquarters near Brussels on his first visit to the West, Lebed, a former general and an aspirant to the presidency, said publicly, ``Whatever NATO decides, Russia is not going to go into hysterics hysterics /hys·ter·ics/ (his-ter´iks) popular term for an uncontrollable emotional outburst. ,'' but he urged NATO to ``wait a generation'' before expanding. But Lebed's stance in private meetings with NATO officials was harder edged and did not mark any change in the Russian position against enlargement, senior American officials said. Since the spring, though, some Russian officials have been working on an ``insurance policy'' to protect its strategic interests and to talk about a charter with NATO to reassure Russia once NATO expands to Russia's border. |
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