950809

British MPs warn

against hasty

expansion of NATO

LONDON: A committee of British members of parliament warned on Wednesday against over-hasty expansion of NATO, saying such a move could merely extend insecurity.

But the all-party House of Commons Defence Committee said it would be prudent to plan on the basis that some Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries will join the alliance within 10 years.

In a report on the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the committee noted that under Article 5 of the treaty, NATO countries were obliged to provide military support to a member facing an external threat.

But it said none of the potential applicant countries faced an immediate threat of this nature, and none would bring positive military benefits to the western alliance.

"The worst outcome for all European countries would be an extension of NATO without the means or the will to fulfil the Article 5 guarantee. Far from projecting security, it would be extending insecurity," the report said.

"It is our judgment that the Allies as a whole and individually need more time...before a whole-hearted Article 5 guarantee could genuinely be given."

The committee said it would be useful to fix target dates for countries to join NATO.

It added: "It would...be prudent to plan on the assumption that NATO will have been extended to include several CEE countries...by the early years of the first decade of next century at the latest -- that is, within 10 years."

Looking at likely applicants, the report said the Visegrad Group -- Poland, Hungary and the Czech and Slovak republics -- had much to do "before they can be objectively judged as likely to contribute positively to North Atlantic security".

Bulgaria and Romania deserved similar consideration to the Visegrad countries, it added.

Of the Baltic states, the report said: "There is some way to go before it would be practicable in military terms, let alone political ones, to contemplate membership of NATO."

It said the West should avoid extending NATO in such a way as to so isolate Ukraine that it was "corralled back into the Russian CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) security system".-Reuter