Dick Lugar: “the visit to Washington of Lech Walesa, the former President of Poland, and the introduction of the NATO Participation…”

“the visit to Washington of Lech Walesa, the former President of Poland, and the introduction of the NATO Participation Act on the floor of the Senate, suggests that it is time for the Senate to begin to seriously consider the future of the Atlantic Alliance. It is a particularly important time to take stock of where we stand in the Alliance. Over the past 2 years, the Alliance has discussed and studied many issues ranging from enlargement to command reform to the broader structural reform of the Alliance in order to enable it to carry out new missions. The time for discussing and studying is now coming to an end. Over the next 12 months, NATO must make decisions in three key areas which will cast the die for European security and the transatlantic relationship for the next decade. Starting with last week's Ministerial meeting in Berlin, Alliance leaders must decide: First, will NATO enlarge its membership, and what policies, recognition, and certainty should it give to countries which will not be included in the first selection? Second, how will NATO reform itself internally to be able to carry out new missions? This includes article 5 defense commitments as well as other non-article 5 missions such as crisis management beyond Alliance borders. Third, what should be the NATO relationship with Russia during the enlargement process? Should NATO build a parallel cooperative partnership with Moscow?”