Some Lawmakers Want To Go Slow On NATO Expansion
A vote is likely this week on expansion, but opponents want a three-year 'pause'
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, April 28) -- Over the Clinton Administration's objections, some lawmakers are pushing for a three-year freeze in allowing additional nations to join NATO after Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
The Senate is headed for a vote on NATO expansion later this week, and even with the required two-thirds super-majority, it appears senators will approve the addition of the three former Soviet-bloc nations.
But opponents plan to offer an amendment calling for a three-year "pause" on any other new members, as suggested by Virginia's Republican Sen. John Warner. Warner says expansion could cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars.
Other opponents worry the expansion will aggravate Russia and jeopardize Russian approval of START II, the nuclear-arms control proposal under consideration by the Russian parliament.
"I just cannot understand why there's this sense of urgency,"
said Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) "Is there still a Cold War? Is there
still an Iron Curtain? Is there still a massive army poised on the
borders of Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic? I don't see it."
Defense Secretary William Cohen, who is lobbying for the expansion, said that "to lock a decision into a three-year freeze I think would be unwise."
Cohen said the door is open for further addition of ex-Soviet satellite nations to the military alliance, "but the door is at the top of a very steep set of stairs that other countries will have to climb before they're entitled to walk through that door."
The proposed expansion would mark the first change in the alliance, organized in 1949 to confront the Soviet Union in Europe, since the end of the Cold War.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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