Senate Votes to Back NATO Enlargement 
Fri May 17,12:08 PM ET  2002

By Vicki Allen 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Friday overwhelmingly backed the expansion of NATO (news - web sites), authorizing $55.5 million in military assistance for seven candidate countries in central and eastern Europe. 

Reaffirming a willingness to add nations to the 19-member transatlantic military alliance, the vote was largely symbolic because the money was provided in earlier legislation, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden said. The vote also followed approval by the House of Representatives in November. 

Biden said, "In this case symbolism matters," saying it sends an important message to those countries and Americans of eastern and central European descent as a restatement of NATO's "open door policy." 

"NATO enlargement significantly furthers the process of moving the zone of stability eastward in Europe, thereby hastening the day when the continent will be truly whole and free," the Delaware Democrat said. 

The Bush administration backs the measure, which the Senate passed 85-6. 

It comes six months before a NATO summit in which at least one candidate nation will qualify for membership in the decades-old alliance that has helped keep stability in Europe but has become increasingly dominated by U.S. military might. 

The money in the bill would be divvied up among Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania, and would help candidate nations meet membership requirements Despite Russian misgivings, NATO is pressing its eastward march after Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined in 1999. 

Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a letter to lawmakers said the bill will "greatly enhance our ability to work with aspirant countries as they prepare to join with NATO and work with us to meet the 21st century's threats to our common security." 

Some senators questioned whether the bill signaled the United States was embracing nations that would not carry their weight. They also were irritated the real action -- providing the military assistance funds -- was done with little or no debate in a spending bill Congress passed in December in the rush to adjourn before Christmas. 

"We've got to be a watchdog of NATO as we begin to invite more and more countries in under this umbrella, and it could well weaken the alliance," said Sen. John Warner of Virginia, top Republican on the Armed Services Committee. 

Warner said language in the bill "could be misleading to aspirant nations" by appearing to be an invitation to join, while losing "sight of the compelling military rationale" for NATO. 

Biden said the bill does not guarantee NATO membership and that there will be reviews and hearings on the candidates. 

He said voting for the bill "does not necessarily indicate any member's intention to vote for or against the eventual admission of any candidate country or countries to NATO." 