DATE: Wednesday, October 8, 1997            TAG: 9710080478

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   64 lines

SENATORS EXAMINE EASTWARD GROWTH OF NATO

Senators probed the planned eastward expansion of NATO with skepticism and puzzlement Tuesday

Members of the Foreign Relations Committee reserved judgment, though the chairman, Jesse Helms, said all Americans should welcome the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland into NATO.

``We must embrace these democracies, guide them and show them away from their tragic histories of ethnic division and war,'' Helms said at a hearing that kicked off consideration of NATO's push eastward.

The Senate must consent by at least a two-thirds vote for NATO to take in the three former allies of the Soviet Union and commit the United States to defend them if they are attacked.

The cost to the United States is estimated in a Pentagon-sponsored study at $150 million to $200 million a year over 10 years, a figure most analysts consider unrealistically low. Helms, R-N.C., sought assurances from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the opening witness, that the 15 allies now in NATO ``are willing to fulfill their end of the bargain.'' Albright said she would insist on that. She also told the committee that Russia, at least hypothetically, could be invited to join the alliance that was formed during the Cold War to deter Soviet troops from moving westward.

``If they meet the criteria they would be welcome,'' Albright said. ``Russia is not the old Soviet Union. Russia is a different place than we ever expected it would be be.''

However, Albright said Moscow had neither expressed an interest in joining NATO nor relented in its opposition to the alliance's growth.

The two-hour hearing was the first round in what is apt to be a close contest. A Senate vote is not expected until next year, after the North Atlantic Council formalizes acceptance of the three former Soviet allies at its winter meeting in Brussels, Belgium, in December.

The parliaments of the 15 allies also must approve.

The notion of Russia joining moved Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., who is not a committee member, to assert that ``if Russia were admitted that would be the end of NATO.''

Warner said he was a ``firm skeptic'' of expansion. And he told Albright it ``will begin to breed dissension'' between countries being admitted and others that are left out.

Despite his endorsement of expansion, Helms was dubious about the financing. He called a new NATO-Russia council, formed to ease Russia's concerns about expansion, ``ill-considered.''

``I confess a fear that the U.S. overture to Russia may already have gone too far,'' Helms said of the arrangement launched last month that gives Russia access to some NATO discussions.

Recalling what he described as ``the betrayal of Yalta,'' the decision by Allied leaders in World War II that the Red Army should liberate Eastern Europe, he questioned Russia's commitment to peace and democracy.

On paying for expansion, Helms criticized the allies for foot-dragging. ``Too many expect the American taxpayers to pay the bills,'' he said.

Again, Albright offered assurances to the chairman. She said Russia had not been granted a decision-making role and would have ``no opportunity to dilute, delay or block NATO decisions.''

Hovering over the hearing was NATO's slow response to ethnic civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. ILLUSTRATION: Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., says, ``We must embrace

these democracies.''

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