No other European city bears better testimony to the historic changes which have taken place on the European continent over the last decade. Where a few years ago walls, minefields, and guard towers separated families and friends, we can now see Europe s biggest construction site. Berlin, the former symbol of a divided continent, is now a symbol of Europe uniting. In the Europe we live in today, conditions defining our security have changed irrevocably. The Chernobyl catastrophe brought this home physically to areas as far apart as the Black Forest and Lappland.
Security encompasses much more than the absence of military threats.
With the Iron Curtain gone forever, our stability is even more directly affected by the broader security situation in Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia. Before this century draws to a close, the Alliance will have three new members and enlargement of the European Union will also be well underway. These parallel developments are tangible evidence of a Europe becoming more and more closely intertwined. In this new Europe the very concept of opposing sides or ideological confrontation has lost any precise meaning. The real challenges our countries face have become very similar.