NATO aspirants preparing for Prague: joining the alliance is number one priority for 10 European nations.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will invite new members into its ranks at the Prague Summit this November. Ten countries are applying, all from central and southeastern Europe.

The Baltic states--Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania--are among the countries expected to join. Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria are likely to be accepted. Slovakia, Albania, Croatia and Macedonia are also applying, but their chances of getting in are considered slim.

Each candidate has been working on NATO'S new member action plan (MAP), a five-chapter agenda of specific items that must be accomplished before the country is invited to join the alliance. In addition to minimum levels of technological military capabilities such as long-range radar, the countries must prove themselves as serious candidates by making efforts in developing functioning market economies.

To join NATO, a country must spend at least 2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on defense. Some of the aspirant countries already are committing more than that. Through the MAP, the countries also must answer tough questions about internal government corruption and social or ethnic problems.

NATO aspirants will have to carry their weight as military allies if asked to join the alliance. "They are not going to get into NATO unless they can prove to the prime ministers and presidents in November that their commitment to modernizing their militaries is going to be sustainable, and not just a snapshot before the decision is taken," said Lord George Robertson, secretary-general of NATO.

The new NATO members will not in any way match the military brawn of the United States, but they will contribute specialized training capabilities. Many of the countries have specialized military units, such as military police, medics, mine-detection and mountain forces. "We've already got people, forces, from all of the applicant countries serving in the Balkans, and serving extremely well," Robertson said.

On the whole, the NATO aspirant countries, which have formed a unique alliance with one another called the Vilnius Group, understand what is expected of them. "We are not waiting to get into a country club; we are willing to rake the risks and make contributions," said Sorin Ducaru, Romanian ambassador to the United States.

The aspirants are also universally committed. "To be a member of NATO is our primary goal in international policy," said Davorin Kraaun, Slovenian ambassador to the United States. There is a high degree of solidarity within the Vilnius Group. "An invitation for one country is a success for all the others. An invitation for all is a success for Europe," said Kraaun.

The Baltic States 

The Baltic states, three tiny Northern European countries wedged between Russia and the Baltic Sea, seek to provide NATO with strategic access to the East, as well as specialized military services. For the 50 years prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Baltic states were occupied by the Soviet Union, but were never recognized as part of the Soviet Union by the United States. The United States always seemed to know that the Baltics were "unhappy" members of the Soviet Union, said Jeremy Shapiro, of the Brookings Institution.

"We are not looking at the NATO enlargement or entrance as a finish line. We would like to become full partners, good partners, and continue to do business for a long time," said Col. Raimonds Graube, commander of the National Armed Forces of Latvia.

"Our basic philosophy is to have a modern, mobile, small, light-armored force. We're not talking about greasers, we're not talking about fighters at this stage of development, we're talking about modern anti-rank and defense capabilities," said Graube. "Above all, we have to have modern command, control, communications and intelligence," which must be interoperable with NATO, he said.

The Baltic states have been working together to modernize their armed forces. This past year, Latvia and Estonia worked together on an unprecedented joint procurement project, to acquire three-dimensional long-range radar. They purchased Lockheed Martin Corp.'s TPS-117 radar system, which is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2003. The radar will be part of BALTNET, the Baltic States Air Surveillance Network, which can be plugged into NATO war rooms in Brussels, said Andzejs Vilumsons, a political-military attache at the Embassy of Latvia in Washington, D.C.

"You ask how we can contribute to NATO, and one part is with the mobile, modern force, but the other point is to talk about specialized forces. We don't have a large infantry with many units, but we do have specialized units, like explosives ordnance and disposal; nuclear, biological and chemical; military police and medics," Graube said.

"From the year 2005 and 2006, we will start to buy full battalions, perhaps one per year. I'm not saying we will buy everything new," Graube said. Latvia plans to procure a wide range of items from the "uniforms down to the support weapons, including cars, vehicles, everything."

Estonia wants to be a player, and the way to do that is "to be part of the structures that shape the game and reflect the values that we share. For us, that means joining the EU and NATO," said Toivo Klaar, defense counselor at the Embassy of Estonia in Washington, D.C.

"We want to play a full part in international policy, we're in it for the long haul, and we are prepared to put our money and our men where our mouth is," Klaar said.

"Our readiness to contribute to collective security and to the defense of our common values has been proven in action. Joining NATO will alter our legal status but it will nor alter our state of mind, and it won't alter the way we do business.

"It is, of course, not enough to say we share common values. That is why in 1999, our former president called on all parliamentary parties to commit themselves to defense spending as 2 percent of GDP," Klaar said. Defense spending has nor been cut, even though Estonia, like all the countries in central Europe, faces significant other economic and domestic challenges. "But there is overwhelming public support for the government to stick with defense spending, and for Estonia to contribute to missions abroad," Klaar said.

Klaar said Estonia currently has soldiers serving in Bosnia and Kosovo, and some are also serving with the United Nations in Lebanon. Also, "we are planning to send some specialists to Afghanistan," including dog teams.

"We have also shown our willingness to send troops to Kyrgizstan, a country to the immediate northeast of Afghanistan, but that has been held up with complications through the Kyrgiz government," he said. The Latvians and Lithuanians also tried to send troops to Kyrgizstan, but the Kyrgiz National Security Council denied access to the Baltic countries, saying that the deadline had passed for countries to apply for admittance. Baltic officials said there had been no deadline mentioned previously and said it was absurd that a deadline could be set arbitrarily.

Numerous officials said, off the record, that it is possible that Russia played a part in the decision to deny the Baltic states access to Kyrgiz soil. Tremendous rivalry still exists between Russia and the Baltic states, and Russia probably would react negatively to Baltic countries amassing troops at the Kyrgiz border, said Melvin Goodman, former head of the Soviet desk at the CIA.

However, "amassing troops" was not what the Baltic states were planning on doing. "We are talking about 10 men from each Baltic state to add to a Danish contingent of airfield support workers in Kyrgizstan," said Klaar.

Estonia is a small nation, he noted. "Our manpower is limited, but I am proud to say that on a per-capita basis, Estonia contributed in Bosnia probably the largest, if not the largest, percentage of all the allied nations. More Estonian mothers have sent their sons and daughters to contribute to peace and security, potentially into harm's way, than have those of almost any other allied nation."

Estonia's planned procurement for 2002 through 2007 includes, for the army, short-range air defenses, anti-rank weapons, nuclear, biological and chemical-detection equipment, howitzers, communications equipment and night vision systems, said Klaar. "For the Air Force, we're focusing on radar equipment, communications, and providing host-nation support in terms of an airfield that can be used by various allied nations.

"For the navy, we are planning to procure a couple of mine-sweepers, a couple of mine-layers, and again, communications equipment," he said. An industry source, at the Eurosatory 2002 Weapons Exhibition in June, said that Lithuanian and Estonian officials also signed agreements to buy Javelin anti-tank man-portable missiles.

Lithuania spent about 2 percent of its GDP on defense last year, which translates into approximately $272 million. That comprises about 8.5 percent of the national budget, said Lt. Col. Gediminas Grinia, Latvia's defense attache to the United States.

In terms of Lithuanian defense priorities, "First, we have to manage our national security and military defense strategy Second, our goal is to prepare deployable forces," Grinia said.

Lithuania's largest procurement priority involves communications hardware. "In order to do anything, we need C41, including radios and communications systems," he said. The second priority is airspace surveillance.

"We still have a lot of gaps, that we are trying to fill with Harris radios. Our navy and air force need additional units. [During] the last three years, we have been building our national defense and communications network. BALTNET is also part of our communications infrastructure. In the future, after the possible membership in NATO, it will be very easy to lend our national communication system in order to provide airspace control to NATO [planners]."

Slovenia

Slovenia, a country with a population of 2 million, is located to the east of Italy. Iris a stable democracy, with a well-established free-market economy. Slovenia is the most economically advanced of all the NATO aspirant countries. GDP is $17,000 U.S. dollars per capita, which is 75 percent of the average for the European Union, said Davorin Kraaun, Slovenian ambassador to the United States.

Slovenia's defense budget currently comprises about 1.6 percent of GDP. "Between 2007 and 2008, it will reach 2 percent of GDP, or approximately $500 million," he said.

Slovenia doesn't have the same problems with aging equipment as other NATO aspirants, because it didn't have any military equipment to begin with when it sepatated from the former Yugoslavia. "Slovenia started developing armed forces from scratch," in 1991, said Kraaun. "Our procurement priorities are command and control, air defense to quicken the reaction force, especially with light armored vehicles and anti-rank weapons, logistics, and personnel armament equipment, which we call the warrior of the 21st century," Kraaun said.

Recently, Slovenia purchased a fleet of light armored vehicles, partially produced domestically, under the brand name Valuk. Also, "we have purchased a series of Hummer trucks, a Roland II air defense system, and some Eurocopters," he said.

Slovenia applied for NATO membership during the last round of enlargement, but was declined at NATO'S Madrid Summit of 1997. "Madrid was a big disappointment for us. ... The Madrid invitations were issued on a political basis, and Slovenia had fulfilled all the political conditions for NATO," Kraaun said. Press reports attributed Slovenia's failure to get into NATO as a move to lessen the disappointment of other Eastern European countries, which were not as far along as Slovenia in their economic and social stability, yet shared the same history of socialist or communist rule. The U.S. governments view as to why Slovenia did not succeed in Madrid was that its military strength was not as far along as the other aspirants, said Helen Recinos, desk officer for Slovenia at the State Department.

Since 1997, public opinion about NATO has been downgraded inside Slovenia, and that nation's citizens have a certain degree of skepticism about getting into NATO this time around, Kraaun said.

But kraaun said things will be different this time. "There is a significant difference between the preparations for Madrid and the preparations for Prague. This time the process of NATO enlargement is much more controlled and transparent," he said.

Besides having complied with all the political conditions for joining NATO, Slovenia plays an active role in the region, and has specialized military capabilities, such as reaction and alpine forces, sanitary and de-mining units. Also, Slovenia has a full company of motorized infantry that is being sent to Bosnia, "which is fully compatible with U.S. Army structure," Kraaun said.

Recently, legislation has been passed to allow a higher degree of flexibility to the Slovenian armed forces. "It allows the possibility for reserve units to be deployed outside the territory of Slovenia, which meets the NATO requirement," Kraaun said. Slovenia also is working to phase out conscription and phase in a completely professional armed force. The armed forces, which currently stand at 40,000 soldiers, will be downsized to 26,000 by 2004.

Romania and Bulgaria

Romania's ambassador to the United States, Sorin Ducaru, worked on Romania's bid for NATO membership during the last round in 1997. "Everyone knows that during the Madrid summit, we were almost there," he said. Therefore, Romania has a "Veteran's approach" to the NATO membership bid process, which "I think shows an improved maturity and a sense of resilience, of learning, from our own past missed opportunities, maybe even mistakes," Ducaro said.

For Romania, NATO membership is not just about security and NATO'S security umbrella. "It has to do with the validation of the country's return to its original Western identity, given by the fact that it was disrupted for half a century, first by the Nazis and then by the Soviets," he said.

Obie Moore, chairman of the board for the American Chamber of Commerce of Romania, said market approaches to business have allowed Romania to become a "beacon of credibility" fur U.S. companies, so much so that firms such as Philip Morris, Lockheed Martin and Coca-Cola have well-established ties there.

Romanians have a lot to learn about market practices, because they sometimes have a sense of entitlement that U.S. companies will buy their products while they are in Romania, said Peter Imre, director of corporate affairs for Phillip Morris Romania. Imre provided an example, saying that Romanian tobacco growers automatically assumed that Philip Morris would always buy a percentage of their product, simply because they were local. But Philip Morris was more interested in a better quality product, so the tobacco growers were encouraged to work on improving the quality of their tobacco, he said.

Romanians believe that their alleged problems in human trafficking, which involve prostitution or forced child labor, also contributed to their failure to get into NATO in 1997. However, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell specifically mentioned Romania's "significant efforts and results in fighting human trafficking at the release of the 2002 Trafficking in Persons Report of the State Department," said Ion Iliescu, Romania's president, in a recent letter to U.S. President George W. Bush.

In terms of defense priorities, Romania has plans within the next several years to buy several British frigates and to purchase radar devices from Lockheed Martin. "These soon will be produced in Romania," Ducaru said. Also, Romania has the same communications needs that other countries mentioned, and plans to equip its MIG-29 fighters with NATO avionics. There are plans also to revamp the airport and ground control facilities, to provide host-country support for NATO operations, said Ducaru.

Bulgaria, for its part, sees itself as a mainstream European country. "It shares the burdens of providing the security of the region and the neighboring regions also," said Todor Tagarev, former director for defense planning for the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense.

Bulgaria is particularly proud of having helped solve problems between ethnic minorities. This is a reason why Bulgaria is more likely to get into NATO this year, said Tagarev.

"In the last several months, we have made enormous progress in military reform," in terms of reforming the senior military leadership and the force structures. "This is practically appreciated by our friends from NATO, especially from the United States," said Rear Adm. Ivan Yordanov, Bulgaria's defense attache' to the United States.

Bulgaria's current defense budget stands at just under $400 million, which is close to 3 percent of its GDP, the highest of all the NATO aspirant countries, Tagarev said. Bulgarian Finance Minister Milen Velchev recently told the Washington Times that his government had allocated $35 million to prepare for NATO membership.

Bulgaria is working to downsize its armed forces, which are "top-heavy" with officers, said Yordanov. So far, "we have downsized 6,738 military personnel and 1,686 civilians working for the ministry of defense. We have also implemented early retirement for 14 generals and 150 colonels." Many of the new leaders have been educated in western and American military institutions, he said.

"Our goal for reaching 7,400 professional soldiers will be attained by the end of 2002," he said. By the end of 2004, the Bulgarian armed forces will have been cut from 60,000 to 45,000 people. There are numerous programs in place to assist those leaving the force to find new professions.

It is important for Bulgaria to show it is reducing its cache of outdated Soviet military equipment. "We are retiring an enormous amount of military equipment," said Yordanov. By June 2002, he said, Bulgaria had retired 352 tanks, 324 armored personnel carriers, 405 artillery pieces, 78 aircraft and seven ships from the navy "This unnecessary equipment will be either destroyed or used for non-military purposes. It will not be sold to other countries, as we are now implementing strong measures to control the possible proliferation of weapons and weapons technologies to those who could be connected with terrorism or illegal activities," he said.

"When we started the reform effort at the end of 1998, the structure of the defense budget was such that it did not allow for any significant procurements," Tagarev said. Less that 5 percent of the defense budget was allotted for capital investments. "This year, more than 15 percent is being spent on capital investments, and the plans are that in 2005 and afterwards, approximately 30 percent of the defense budget will be spent on investments," he said.

Among the top procurement priorities are command and control systems. Another program was to modernize two airfields, to provide host-nation support capabilities, he said. "We're also working on the ASOC project--the Air Sovereignty Operations Center, and everything else that goes with interoperability and air surveillance and exchange of air picture," Tagarev said. A national military command center also is being planned. Bulgaria is starting a project to overhaul its fighter aircraft, deciding recently to extend the life of its MIG-29 fighters, said Tagarev.

Slovakia

Slovakia, or the Slovak Republic, used to be part of Czechoslovakia, and has its own set of challenges, making chances for admission to NATO uncertain. According to a planning document, Slovakia's strategic goal is "to build a relatively small, high-quality force appropriately armed and trained for integration in NATO collective defense arrangements." Slovakia currently has a large force, mandatory conscription, aging systems, a comparatively slow economy and government corruption problems. A Slovak official interviewed for this article said the country has a lot of work to do.

For Slovakia, "the MAP will remain the basic framework to continue our preparation up until Prague and well beyond Prague," said Ivan Korcok, director of the division of international organizations and security policy for the Slovakian ministry of foreign affairs.

Government corruption is a sore issue, and is "a plague for democracy. We need to increase public perception and awareness of corruption, and provide for a legal framework to fight it," said Korcok. In the past year, Slovakia has worked on laws and action plans for fighting corruption.

Like Bulgaria, Slovakia is reducing the size of its armed forces while increasing the percentage of professional soldiers. By 2010, Slovakia aims to have its army reduced from approximately 40,000 individuals to 26,000. Questions came up as to "whether we need a military structure like the one we used to have before 1989, which was oriented on territorial defense," he said.

The government, in June 2002, agreed to present legislation to the parliament to spend 2 percent of its GDP on defense. There is a parliamentary consensus to support this policy, but the vote in parliament will rake place after the elections this fall, "hopefully before Prague," said Korcok.

Slovakia has doubled its participation in UN and NATO activities in the last several months, with about 700 individuals involved in operations worldwide. Forty Slovakian engineers are working in Afghanistan, as support personnel at Bagram Airport.

Slovakia's modernization priorities are communications, air sovereignty and control, and building rapid-reaction forces, said Peter Burian, Slovakia's ambassador to NATO. Slovakia is also developing a multi-national brigade, with neighbors Poland and the Czech Republic, for potential deployment in NATO operations, he said.