# 1997 Madrid summit

The 1997 Madrid summit was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the sixteen members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and their partner countries held in Madrid, Spain, on 8–9 July 1997. It was the 15th NATO summit and the second in 1997, the previous one being held in Paris. The summit was notable for inviting three new members, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic to join the alliance.

## Summit
### Venue

The summit was held at the pavilions of the IFEMA fairgrounds. The government of Spain allocated 1.3 billion pesetas (€7.8 million) for the development of the summit.

### NATO Enlargement

The topic of enlargement was the main focus of the summit. The result of the summit was that Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic were invited to join NATO. Fellow Visegrád Group member Slovakia was excluded from this invitation. Slovakia had held a referendum on NATO membership in May 1997, but turnout in the referendum failed to achieve the required 50% of eligible voters and government sabotage was blamed, which in turn was viewed as one of a string of undemocratic measures taken by Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar. A majority of NATO members reportedly supported France's proposal to also immediately invite Romania and Slovenia as members, but this was strongly opposed by U.S. President Bill Clinton, and even an "iron-clad guarantee" that they could be invited in two years time was watered-down in favor of an "open door" policy for new potential members. A main concern for the United States was the cost of potentially raising the military standards of the new Eastern European members. Estimates put this cost at as much as US$10 billion, which participants worried could lead to the treaty recognizing the new members being rejected by the Republican-held U.S. Senate.

### Distinctive Partnership

Additionally, a "Charter on a Distinctive Partnership" was signed between NATO and Ukraine, creating the NATO-Ukraine Commission and establishing relations between the two, and a declaration supporting peace efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina was read and signed by participants.

## Participants

The official meetings were led by NATO Secretary General Javier Solana. One notable absence from the summit was Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia, which was instead represented by lower level bureaucrats.
Key :
* Non-NATO member
| Country or organization | Head of Delegation | Title |
| NATO | Javier Solana | Secretary General |
| Albania | Bashkim Fino | Prime Minister |
| Armenia | Alexander Arzumanyan | Minister of Foreign Affairs |
| Austria | Viktor Klima | Chancellor |
| Azerbaijan | Heidar Aliev | President |
| Belarus | Alexander Lukashenko | President |
| Belgium | Jean-Luc Dehaene | Prime Minister |
| Bulgaria | Petar Stoyanov | President |
| Canada | Jean Chrétien | Prime Minister |
| Czech Republic | Václav Havel | President |
| Denmark | Poul Nyrup Rasmussen | Prime Minister |
| Estonia | Lennart Meri | President |
| Finland | Martti Ahtisaari | President |
| France | Jacques Chirac | President |
| Georgia | Eduard Shevardnadze | President |
| Germany | Helmut Kohl | Chancellor |
| Greece | Costas Simitis | Prime Minister |
| Hungary | Gyula Horn | Prime Minister |
| Iceland | Davíð Oddsson | Prime Minister |
| Italy | Romano Prodi | Prime Minister |
| Kazakhstan | Auyeskhan Kyrbasov | Ambassador |
| Latvia | Guntis Ulmanis | President |
| Lithuania | Algirdas Brazauskas | President |
| Luxembourg | Jean-Claude Juncker | Prime Minister |
| FYR Macedonia | Kiro Gligorov | President |
| Moldova | Petru Lucinschi | President |
| Netherlands | Wim Kok | Prime Minister |
| Norway | Thorbjørn Jagland | Prime Minister |
| Poland | Aleksander Kwaśniewski | President |
| Portugal | António Guterres | Prime Minister |
| Romania | Emil Constantinescu | President |
| Russia | Valery Serov | Deputy Chairman of the Government |
| Slovakia | Vladimír Mečiar | Prime Minister |
| Slovenia | Janez Drnovšek | Prime Minister |
| Spain | José María Aznar (host) | Prime Minister |
| Sweden | Göran Persson | Prime Minister |
| Switzerland | Adolf Ogi | Federal Councillor |
| Turkey | Süleyman Demirel | President |
| Turkmenistan | Çary Niýazow | Ambassador to France |
| Ukraine | Leonid Kuchma | President |
| United Kingdom | Tony Blair | Prime Minister |
| United States | Bill Clinton | President |
| Uzbekistan | Abdulaziz Kamilov | Minister of Foreign Affairs |
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan were not member states of NATO but were invited to attend and participate in the summit.

## Other events

On the evening of 8 July 1997, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía welcomed the heads of State, of Government, of Delegations and their companions at the Royal Palace, where they hosted a state dinner.