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<TITLE>President Constantinescu </TITLE>
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<CENTER><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+3">The
Security of Central Europe</FONT></FONT></FONT></CENTER>
<CENTER><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+2">President
of Romania Emil Constantinescu</FONT></FONT></FONT></CENTER>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">REPAIRING THE
DIVISIONS OF CENTRAL EUROPE </FONT></FONT></B></H4> </CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Seventy years ago, an
American journalist, a witness to the Bolshevik revolution, wrote a book
about the ten days that shook the world. Those ten days opened the way to
a division of Europe that appeared for a long time to be irreversible: a
fracture between liberty and repression, between democracy and the
egalitarian delusion of communism.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">A series of events in
1997, too recent to enable us to grasp their true historical dimension,
may warrant a description of the period of time over which they occurred
as "the ten days that stabilized Europe": May 21, Kiev--the
historic reconciliation between Poland and Ukraine; May 25, Bucharest--the
historic reconciliation between Romania and Hungary; May 27, Paris--the
signing of the Founding Act between the North Atlantic Alliance and the
Russian Federation; May 28, the Hague--52 heads of state and government
commemorated the Marshall Plan and outlined the future structure of an
undivided continent; May 28 and 29, Sintra--a privileged relationship was
established between NATO and Ukraine; May 31, Kiev--the treaty between
Ukraine and the Russian Federation was signed; June 2, Constantza--the
treaty between Romania and Ukraine was signed.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">It may seem paradoxical
that the dynamics and obvious acceleration of peaceful solutions to the
division of Europe have been to a considerable extent the work of a
military-political organization: the North Atlantic Alliance. An old Latin
dictum, <I>si vis pacem, para bellum</I>, says that if you want peace,
prepare for war. At no time has this phrase been more credible than during
the past five decades, when peace was safeguarded thanks to the existence
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Far from being a mere coalition
built around increasingly sophisticated weaponry, NATO was conceived and
has continued to develop to this day as an alliance built around a set of
values.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">What values are these? And
for what reason were they deemed important enough to justify an extensive
display of power, energy, and intelligence in order to protect them?</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">The values NATO is built
on are representative of democracy, political pluralism, freedom of
business initiative, protection of human rights, tolerance, and the right
to dissent. The aggregate of these values has defined Western civilization
for a long time. These values can and must become today the shared assets
of Europe as a whole because they are, together and individually, the only
values that measure up to the dignity of the human being. Communism, while
it ruled over the countries of Central Europe for five decades, was at the
opposite pole, a form of domination, not one of existence; it was an
instrument designed to obliterate values, not to encourage them.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">The fracture between the
far west of Europe and its central zone is of recent date, and it actually
interrupted a long record of European development that, particularly after
World War I, had begun to exhibit a growing unity. The fracture was of a
political nature, and was perceived as a strategic frontier between a
Europe consistently attached to democratic values and another Europe whose
political class vehemently denied those values.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">The peace arrangements
after World War II apportioned the countries of Central Europe according
to the great victors' wishes, with little regard to the countries'
participation in one camp or another or to their contribution to victory.
With that peace came the assignation of their status as belonging to one
of the two poles of the post-war order. For some of those states the
assignation went as far as incorporation into the Soviet Union or a
refusal to separate them from the multinational states to which they
already belonged.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">The smaller states in
Western and Northern Europe, Austria in the central part of the continent,
and Greece in its southern part, were able to benefit from the values and
democratic attitude of the United States, France, Britain, and, later,
Germany; but the other states of Central Europe were placed under a much
more dramatic influence: the Communist authority. In that process, Prague
was not only a pivot of resistance to foreign occupation but also the
symbol of peaceful liberation from the Communist rule. Prague is now a
symbol of regional identity. That is why I feel that any analysis of
Central Europe's security outlook, such as the one we are engaged in
today, cannot possibly find a more appropriate venue.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">The end of the Cold War
gave an historic chance to the Central European states to choose for
themselves their own national security system. This choice was limited,
however, by each state's military capability and by its defense potential.
For those states that acquired their independence in the past few years
and for those that once belonged to the Warsaw Pact, that potential, and
the national defense culture in particular, was distorted, over a span of
at least two generations, by the nations' dependence on the Communist
military bloc.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">MEMBERSHIP IN AN
ENLARGED NATO</FONT></FONT></B></H4></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">For that reason, as early
as 1990, the strategic priorities of the Central European states were both
to modernize their armed forces (most often starting with the restoration
of their national identity) and to seek support from NATO, the only
credible collective-defense institution, in order to obtain a security
umbrella that had formerly been offered only at the cost of subordinating
their sovereignty, independence, and even their national identity.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">The natural way in which
the countries of Central Europe recovered, without exception, their
democratic traditions after 1990 proved that the above-mentioned fracture
had not been a structural one. The way in which the states once hidden
behind the Iron Curtain perceived the North Atlantic Alliance's
enlargement message also proved that the estrangement between the two
Europes had been nothing but a temporary setback.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">I can confidently state
that the process of NATO enlargement is not proceeding from west to east
but rather from east to west, founded on the free and well-informed choice
of the Central European states themselves. Perhaps surprisingly, the
fastest and most enthusiastic response to the initiative to open the
Alliance did not come primarily from the countries situated on the former
fault line, but rather from those farthest east: Romania and the Baltic
States.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">ROMANIAN ACCESSION TO
NATO AND REFORM</FONT></FONT></B></H4></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Romanian society does not
regard accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a form of
protection against a threat, but rather as a way to regain an identity
that was unjustly denied to it for five decades. For us, NATO is not a
shelter but a community based on shared values, now recovered.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Romania has inherited a
complex security position not so much because of the Soviet Communist
influence, from which it was relatively independent, but rather because of
the irrational autarchy to which our country was reduced by the domestic
brand of Communism. Even though the Romanian military culture was
protected, starting in the sixties, from the Soviet imprint, it did not
incorporate the expertise acquired in the West over all those years. Also,
after 1990, Romania no longer had a collective security arrangement. That
is why it has become imperative for our armed forces to be modernized and
for the state to accede to NATO.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Military modernization has
proved to be the reform taking place most quickly in Romania. Our national
military traditions and values, which have remained largely unadulterated
even during the Communist years, have made access to the Western military
culture easier; Western military processes have been immediately absorbed
throughout the military hierarchy. Over a period of only a few years,
armed forces reform has produced a radical change in both command and
control structures and the configuration of combat units. Once condemned
to isolation, the Romanian military's international vocation has been
successfully expressed since 1991 in their participation in international
peacekeeping and crisis-management missions in Europe, Africa, and the
Gulf.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">A CENTRAL EUROPEAN
SECURITY SYSTEM</FONT></FONT></B></H4></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Probably the most amazing
aspect of the NATO enlargement process is the fact that, even before they
could be certain of membership, most candidate countries in Central Europe
met almost all the basic targets set by the organization. If NATO was only
a military institution, these countries would have been able to meet those
objectives only once they were inside the Alliance. But the wish to join
NATO has brought about the emergence of a security system that, in other
times, only the Alliance could have provided. The Central European
Initiative, the Central European Free Trade Agreement, the Poland-Ukraine
Treaty, the Romania-Hungary Treaty, and the Romania-Ukraine Treaty have
created a joint political fabric covering an area even wider than the one
traditionally described as Central Europe. This web of agreements and
treaties, which was not masterminded by a single command center,
demonstrates that a whole chapter in international-relations strategic
thinking has come to an end. I believe that, seven years after the
collapse of totalitarianism, Central Europe is able to send its own
message to the world: <I>the new name for security is prosperity.</I></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">THE BENEFITS OF
SIMULTANEOUS CENTRAL EUROPEAN ACCESSION</FONT></FONT></B></H4></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">It is not empires and
their armies that are our enemies today, but rather underdevelopment,
corruption, unlawful financial markets, drug and arms trafficking,
organized crime, and terrorism. But even beyond the imperfections of the
economic and social changes in Central Europe, and beyond the difficulties
inherent in change, experience has brought with it a common store of
wisdom that can actually enrich the Alliance itself. What I mean to say is
that I am aware of everything that NATO can offer to us, but I am also
persuaded that our presence inside the Alliance will enhance the
organization not only in terms of quantity but, in equal measure, in terms
of quality.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Central Europe's
geographic and strategic space, confined between countries with an
imperial history--France and Germany to the west, Russia to the east,
Turkey and Italy to the south--is filled with states that have small-or
medium-sized areas and populations ranging between 2 million and 40
million. Throughout history, the importance of the Central European
peoples was gauged primarily by the yardstick of Great Power perceptions
and interests.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">The defense potential of
these states is now being reevaluated. As long as military strategy was
dominated by the concept of possessing and controlling territories,
attention was focused on the Continental countries that acted as a bridge
or, at times, a buffer between the great rivals. The globalization of
strategic interests has now shifted attention to the areas that have
access to the seas--with Central Europe's direct access to the Baltic, the
Adriatic, and the Black Seas assuming great importance. That access can
only be ensured through the simultaneous accession to NATO of Poland,
Slovenia, and Romania.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Because of its sea access,
the Danube-Black Sea transport system has acquired special significance,
particularly in light of the newly discovered, huge resources of oil and
gas in the Caspian basin. By using that system, NATO could connect to a
new source of energy that may be even larger than that in the Gulf, a
point of major importance since the continued intensive exploitation of
the North Sea deposits may cause their gradual depletion.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">NATO could also benefit
from having Poland and Romania provide a north-to-south axis linking the
Baltic Sea to the Black Sea while avoiding tense situations and promoting
a cooperative relationship with the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, and
Russia. Development of the Alliance along a west-to-east axis covering
Slovenia, Hungary, and Romania could play a stabilizing role in the Balkan
region by putting to use the good relations that Romania enjoys with
Bulgaria and Serbia.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">The simultaneous
integration of Romania and Slovenia would strengthen NATO's southern
flank, obviously the one most exposed. In the medium and long term,
threats to collective security that the Alliance will most likely have to
face will come especially from the southeast and south, from an arc of
crisis comprising the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East, the Gulf
area, and North Africa. The proliferation of arms trafficking, militant
fundamentalism, and crime and drugs largely originates from that
direction.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Romania's location at the
point where geopolitical and strategic axes meet makes it the "knot"
that can close the regional security network while providing fluent
operational communications between the flanks of the Alliance.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">THE RISKS OF
REDIVIDING CENTRAL EUROPE</FONT></FONT></B></H4></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">It would be extremely
disturbing if, as the result of political and strategic surgery, Central
Europe were divided into states that are prepared for NATO membership and
those that are unprepared. This would leave outside the Alliance not only
one country or another, but the most precious asset that Central Europe
can offer: the fundamentally common experience of change that is,
ultimately, indivisible. The joint political fabric that I mentioned
earlier would thus be destroyed, and the old divide would simply be
replaced by a new one, a less militarized one, of course, but as material
as the one that used to extend the Berlin Wall from the Baltic to the
Adriatic. Replacing a dismantled curtain with a half-opened door is
tantamount to trying to rebuild that curtain.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Increasing the
complexities of geography, setting up new barriers, and thinking in terms
of half-opened doors will undoubtedly present us with a risk that is hard
to take. This risk is not linked to military strength, security, or
stability but it is rather to assume once again that the values of
democracy, pluralism, a free market system, and human rights are the
exclusive property of a Western world that, in the long run, would prove
less ambitious than the peoples of Central Europe had thought it to be for
decades. These people found in themselves the power to put an end to the
totalitarian regime using as a model the great family of western
democracies, of which NATO is a symbol. Just like the other peoples of
Central Europe, Romanians want to share with those democracies the
experience they have acquired--of resistance and solidarity, victory over
fear, and belief in the force of reason. We wish to become a NATO member
because of the determination of Alliance member-states to serve as
international guardians of democracy and freedom.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER>
<H4>ROMANIAN EFFORTS TOWARD NATO COMPLIANCE</H4></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Since 1990, Romania's
interest in guarding freedom and democracy has found concrete expression
in political, diplomatic, and military undertakings. As a result of
dynamic and consistent initiatives and actions, my country is now situated
in a privileged position, at the crossroads of a complex system of
political and economic initiatives. I refer here to the trilateral
cooperation schemes among Poland, Ukraine, and Romania; Romania, Ukraine,
and Moldova; Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece; and Romania, Hungary, and
Austria. Moreover, Romania is a bridge between the provisions of the Black
Sea Economic Cooperation Agreement and the Central European Free Trade
Agreement.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">In the military sphere,
considerable efforts have been made in order to adapt Romania's armed
forces to the NATO requirements of interoperability and compatibility.
Several cooperative programs have also been launched in the field of
defense production with various companies from NATO member-states.
Participation in joint exercises under Partnership for Peace, as well as
actual involvement in IFOR and SFOR, shows that Romania has the capability
to contribute directly to crisis-management and peacekeeping efforts.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Our wish to become a
member of NATO is an act of political will in favor of peace and
civilization, targets we are ready and willing to reach. I am confident
that the predominant role that democratic values now play in NATO, as
compared to its purely military dimension, will succeed, at the end of the
day, in overcoming the reservations that the Great Power Russia may have
towards NATO enlargement.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">OVERCOMING RUSSIA'S
FEARS</FONT></FONT></B></H4></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">The reservations or fears
that Russia has expressed concerning the integration of the Baltic States
into the North Atlantic Alliance remind me of an experience we in Romania
had in our domestic political scene. For seven years, the crypto-Communist
structures that were in power in Romania after the fall of the
totalitarian regime accused the democratic parties of harboring feelings
of revenge, of intending to induce chaos and economic and social
instability. The only practical way to prove that those accusations were
false was through the actual coming to power of the democratic opposition,
through free and fair elections. And, indeed, none of those early fears
have come true.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">I give this example
because it can be applied to Eastern Europe. The first wave of NATO
enlargement will not diminish the chances for integration of the Baltic
States. And once an enlarged NATO becomes reality, Russia will find that
its current fears are not justified and that, far from posing a threat, an
enlarged Alliance will offer much improved opportunities for cooperation.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">NATO MEMBERSHIP AS AN
ECONOMIC OPTION</FONT></FONT></B></H4></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Belonging to NATO today
can be considered an option of a state's domestic policy. But the issues
such an option entails are not exclusively military. Countries are no
longer faced today with the danger of foreign military occupation, but
rather with the threat of being defeated economically. The great dangers
are, and will continue to be, related to the stability of the financial
and banking systems, to the stability of social relations, and to the
level of corruption and organized crime. NATO membership stands as a firm
option for a solid economy and a sound social system, able to support the
integration effort without causing social crises.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Membership is also a
shield against the potential danger of rising nationalist Communism, which
has fed and continues to feed on real or imagined internal and external
dangers.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">CONCLUDING REMARKS</FONT></FONT></B></H4></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Throughout history,
European architecture has been built by wars. We now have the historic
opportunity to freely shape this architecture, for the countries involved
in this process are no longer marked by ideological segregation and are no
longer held under the sway of military domination. Instead, they now
freely share the aspiration to belong to a model of prosperity, dignity,
and democracy. As Victor Hugo once said, there is something more powerful
than any army, namely an idea whose time has come.</FONT></FONT> </P>
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