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As europhoria dies down, NATO candidates face hard work
PRAGUE, Nov 24 (AFP) - Seven former Soviet bloc countries may be elated at their new invitations to join NATO, but officials warn that they have much work to do before joining the transatlantic military alliance. Like the three other ex-communist countries which joined the West's premier military club in 1999, they face a mammoth task to upgrade their armed capacities.
"We fully understand that today's decision marks not the end, but rather the beginning of a new era," said Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, whose country was among three Baltic states to receive a NATO invite last week.
"No matter how convincing our achievements are to date, there is still much to be done," added Adamkus. Lithuania is seen as the best prepared of the Baltic members-in-waiting, with an army of 15,000.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson told beaming leaders from NATO's future members at the Prague summit Thursday they they had already achieved much.
"All aspirants have been faced with tough and difficult decisions. It is a reflection of their political determination to join NATO that they have met this challenge," he said.
But he warned the leaders of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia they had much work to do and could not expect "a free ride".
The invitees appear well aware of the tough challenge ahead.
"Talks with NATO are only beginning and there is serious work still ahead," said Arnold Ruutel, the president of Estonia, whose Baltic country of just 1.4 million people has an army of 4,100.
"We are going to get down to work today with discipline and perseverance," said Mircea Geoana, the foreign minister of Romania, which with 21.7 million inhabitants is the biggest NATO member to be. Its army of 100,000 will be trimmed before it joins NATO.
Geoana said Romania wants to follow in the footsteps of Poland, which along with Hungary and the Czech Republic became the first former communist bloc country to join NATO in 1999.
"Romania is taking Poland as its role model, its progress and its development, because we want to represent for the south east of Europe what Poland represents for the north," he said.
In a sign of the challenge ahead for NATO's new invitees, all three current ex-communist bloc NATO members, and in particular Hungary, have struggled to fufill their obligations towards the alliance they made when they joined.
Candidate countries are putting around two percent of their gross domestic product into upgrading their militaries
The chief of Romania's army, General Mihai Popescu, said Bucharest would "quickly draw up a strategy for acquiring military equipment which is compatible with NATO's armies."
As in most of the countries invited to join NATO almost everything has to be changed.
"Even the rifles have a different calibre compared to those used in NATO," he said.
"The needs of our army are complex and range from fighter planes and warships, but we also need telecommunications equipment."
Dimitar Tzonev, the spokesman of the Bulgarian government, said that Sofia also has to make big efforts.
"We reaffirm our determination to continue all the reforms necessary to become full NATO members," he said.
In Slovenia, which emerged from the former Yugoslavia, the authorities also have a lot of work to do convincing a public opinion which is sceptical about the wisdom of joining NATO.
"In view of the international realities, to remain a neutral country would represent an abnormal attitude," Slovenian President Milan Kucan said, while indicating he was in favour of the organisation of a referendum on entry into the EU.
Bruce Jackson, president of a non-governmental organisation helping NATO candidates, said the candidates do not only face challenges in the military domain.
In particular he pointed to corruption, which he said posed a threat to democracy and internal stability.
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