U.S. Asks Allies to Act Quickly on NATO Plan

The Clinton Administration sought Saturday to maintain the momentum of its new “Partnership for Peace” program, urging U.S. allies to move ahead quickly on setting up machinery to enable new Eastern European democracies to take part in NATO exercises.

Arriving at a two-day conference of European defense ministers here, U.S. Defense Secretary William J. Perry called on NATO countries to take “vigorous, concrete actions” to provide facilities and training for former Warsaw Pact military units.

Perry told a news conference late Saturday that now that the program has been formally adopted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it is “urgent that we get on with the task of creating (it) . . . brick by brick. I am here this week to begin that process.”

He also sought to assure America’s Western European allies that despite Washington’s public optimism about developments in Russia, the Administration is aware that the situation there could sour quickly and that it is beginning to grapple with what to do should that occur.

Perry’s appearance at this weekend’s conference marked his first foreign trip as defense secretary. The 66-year-old former Stanford University professor was sworn in Thursday night to succeed Les Aspin, who had held the post for a year. Perry had been Aspin’s deputy secretary.

In addition to attending the meeting, Perry also held private talks Saturday with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl; Volker Ruehe, the German defense minister; Rudolf Scharping, Kohl’s possible rival in upcoming elections, and Malcolm Rifkin, the British defense minister. Perry will speak at the security session today.

Perry’s message was aimed at dealing with two problems: a suspicion by Eastern Europeans that the Partnership for Peace program is only a political cover for refusing them immediate NATO membership, and a fear by Western Europeans that Washington is unrealistic about the outlook in Russia.

Under the partnership program, unveiled by President Clinton at a NATO summit in Brussels last month, Eastern European democracies would be permitted to take part in some special activities with NATO units but would not be allowed to join NATO immediately.

To date, only four Eastern European countries--Poland, Romania, Estonia and Lithuania--have signed up for the program, but Perry said that he expects a dozen more to join in the weeks ahead.