
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 2, 1994                   TAG: 9401020023
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. BACKS SLOW GROWTH FOR NATO

The Clinton administration has started an intense diplomatic campaign to persuade reluctant East European governments to embrace its evolutionary plans for NATO expansion rather than to press for immediate NATO membership, according to State Department officials.

The main targets are Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, the three countries that consider themselves in need of the alliance's security guarantees.

Rather than offer immediate membership to any former Soviet bloc country, Washington has devised a process of initiation and cooperation with Eastern Europe, including Russia. Called the Partnership for Peace, the process holds the allure of eventual NATO membership, but specifies neither timing nor precise criteria.

The Clinton administration opposes rapid expansion of NATO on the grounds that it would alienate Russia and strengthen the hand of nationalists who regard the West as an enemy. The Partnership is meant to be "inclusive" by inviting almost all of Europe's non-NATO countries to take part. This way, no creation of an anti-Russian bloc is implied, U.S. officials said.

Opposition to the Partnership from any East European capitals would undercut an allied endorsement scheduled to be announced at the Jan. 10 NATO summit in Brussels. Rejection would highlight the fears that the Partnership is but a new Yalta, shorthand for a post-World War II arrangement in which the West acquiesced in consigning Eastern Europe to the Soviet orbit.

State Department officials said messages sent through embassies and from Washington caution the East Europeans that rejection of the Partnership would not further their case and that going along is their best bet to eventually gain security guarantees that go with membership. The argument has been more difficult to make, an official said, since Russia's recent parliamentary elections exposed the strength of nationalist feelings in Russia.

To answer fears of a resurgent, expansionist Moscow, U.S. officials have hinted that the pace for introducing Partnership activities could be speeded up, particularly joint planning of military maneuvers.

by CNB