Romanian Urges Congress to Back His Nation’s NATO Hopes

Romanian President Emil Constantinescu made an unabashed appeal Wednesday to a joint session of Congress for the United States to support his country’s effort to join NATO.

In a 40-minute speech, the Romanian leader praised as “a visionary undertaking” President Clinton’s initiative to expand the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and declared it is now in U.S. interests that Romania be part of the next wave of nations joining the alliance.

“In order to build a fully prosperous, democratic and stable Europe . . . the United States needs to anchor its policies to countries on Europe’s southeastern flank that share its democratic ideals and its commitment to the region’s stability,” he said. “Romania is such a country.”

Romania was the only country in Eastern Europe where the anti-Communist revolution of 1989 turned bloody, and the Romanian leader argued that membership in the Western alliance would help solidify and build on democratic gains. “Democracy can only flourish in Romania . . . if our role as a stabilizing force is acknowledged and supported by the United States and its allies,” he said.

Despite his lofty rhetoric, any immediate offer of NATO membership for Romania remains highly uncertain. The speech came on the second day of his four-day state visit to Washington, the first by an East European leader since the Senate last spring ratified the first post-Cold War enlargement of NATO by approving the accession of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

In negotiations on expansion last year among the alliance’s 16 members, the U.S. strenuously resisted efforts, mainly by France and Italy, to include Romania. The U.S. argued that a small, initial enlargement would be easier to carry out and leave credible candidates for a second wave that could be announced as early as next spring.

After formally accepting the first three candidates at a NATO summit a year ago in Madrid, Clinton traveled to the Romanian capital, Bucharest, to console Romanians and encourage them not to give up the political and economic reforms needed to keep them as prospects for alliance membership. “The door to NATO is open, it will stay open, and we will help you walk through it,” he said then.

Still, Romania has hurdles to clear to get NATO membership, experts say. Its democratic, free-market reforms were put in place years after those enacted by many other former Soviet Bloc nations, and they are still fragile. Romania also has reduced its defense budget by 10%, a move that makes the country, at least in the Pentagon’s view, a less attractive ally.

And some U.S. officials insist that NATO must first test the waters with Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.