ACCESSION
NUMBER:320131
FILE ID:POL503
DATE:01/07/94
TITLE:ETHNIC CONFLICTS POSE GREAT CHALLENGE TO FUTURE EUROPE (01/07/94)
TEXT:*94010703.POL
ETHNIC CONFLICTS POSE GREAT CHALLENGE TO FUTURE EUROPE
(Lake says Partnership for Peace will address concerns) (710)
By Jacquelyn S. Porth
USIA Security Affairs Correspondent
Washington -- President Clinton's National Security Affairs (NSA) adviser
Anthony Lake says potential ethnic conflicts and rampant nationalism
represent "the greatest security challenge" to Europe now and in the
future.
In a White House interview with foreign journalists January 7, Lake said
these challenges can best be addressed through the promotion of democracy
and the Partnership for Peace (PFP) program -- a plan to draw the states of
Central and Eastern Europe economically, politically and militarily into
the West.
Lake praised the cooperation of the defense ministers of the Czech Republic,
Poland, Slovakia and Hungary in their "common position" endorsing PFP
January 7 in Warsaw. He described their endorsement of closer military
links as "encouraging" and he said the PFP concept will help promote
cooperation and stability in the region.
The issue of possible future membership in the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO), the official said, will be up to each government.
"We...expect, hope for and would welcome NATO expansion," he explained,
"through an evolutionary process such as the Partnership for Peace."
PFP membership will be open to all former members of the Warsaw Pact,
including Russia, Lake said, as well as neutral countries. The program is
designed to be "an integrative device," the NSA adviser said, rather than a
1ivisive one. While membership will permit NATO consultations, he said it
will not provide a formal security guarantee.
PFP obligations, Lake explained, would include a commitment to democracy,
peaceful conflict resolution, transparent defense budgets, joint training,
humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping.
The official said partnership is a way of opening a door to NATO membership,
"and we expect and would welcome that governments will walk through that
door."
Asked about President Clinton's agenda at the upcoming NATO summit, Lake
said the president will reemphasize that the United States will remain
engaged in Europe "through NATO." The United States, he said, has a deep
interest in European security and economic integration and the president
will stress the importance of NATO as the lynchpin for that security.
After Brussels, President Clinton travels to Prague to meet with Polish,
Czech, Hungarian and Slovakian leaders. He then visits Moscow and Minsk,
before wrapping up the trip in Geneva.
Lake admitted that the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina "is very serious,"
but he stressed that it is "wrong to say we have turned our backs" on the
people there. He expressed concern for Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia
and the whole Balkans area.
Regarding the recent upsurge of violence in Bosnia, Lake pointed to the NATO
resolution warning of possible airstrikes against the Serbs if the
strangulation of Sarajevo continues.
"We hope the attacks of the past few days will cease," Lake said, adding
that the NATO summit will be a tremendous success if it helps create
institutions, such as PFP which will help prevent "future Bosnias."
Asked about the continuing Russian troop presence in the Baltics, Lake said
that subject has been raised many times with the Russians and would be
raised once again when the president meets with Russian President Boris
Yeltsin.
Asked for his assessment of the Russian military, Lake noted that it has
stood by democracy in the past eight months, which he found "encouraging"
-- nor does he expect the situation to change.
Lake also responded to questions about North Korea and Syria.
Lake said that the U.S. strategic goal with respect to the Koreans is to
work toward a Korean peninsula which "is free of nuclear weapons" and to
encourage the North and South to work towards "peaceful reunification."
The United States, he added, hopes to preserve the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty regime. Lake said the intelligence agencies have
varying opinions on whether the North Koreans possess one or more nuclear
devices.
Asked about President Clinton's meeting with Syrian President Hafez Asad in
Geneva on January 16, Lake confirmed that a discussion of terrorism will be
on the agenda. Asked about a possible removal of Syria from the U.S. list
of states which support terrorists, the adviser said Syria would be
stricken from the list only "when its behavior justifies it."
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