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adequate to meet these capability shortfalls. Failure of
the European NATO members to achieve the goals es-
tablished through the Defense Capabilities Initiative
could weaken support for the Alliance in the United
States over the long term.
(17) Members of the Alliance must also recognize
that the campaign against new and emerging threats to
the security of the Alliance requires other non-military
capabilities and efforts to be effective. Thus, the need to
enhance intelligence-sharing and cooperation, both bilat-
erally between Alliance members and partners and with-
in the Alliance collectively, the facilitation of enhanced
coordination among Alliance member’s law enforcement
agencies, and improved police and judicial cooperation
and information exchanges are critical to the overall ef-
fort.
(18) NATO has embarked upon an historic mission
to share its benefits and patterns of consultation and co-
operation with other nations in the Euro-Atlantic area
through both enlargement and active partnership.
(19) NATO has enlarged its membership on four
different occasions since 1949.
(20) The NATO summit meeting to be held in the
fall of 2002 in Prague will provide an historic oppor-
tunity to chart a course for NATO in the new millen-
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nium by reaffirming the importance of NATO to the col-
lective security of the Euro-Atlantic region, by address-
ing new threats, developing new capabilities, and by ex-
tending invitations to additional countries of Europe to
become members of the Alliance.
(21) The governments of NATO member countries
have stated that enlargement of the Alliance is a further
step toward the Alliance’s basic goal of enhancing secu-
rity and extending stability throughout the Euro-Atlantic
region.
(22) The enlargement process of NATO helps to
avert conflict, because the very prospect of membership
serves as an incentive for aspiring members to resolve
disputes with their neighbors and to push ahead with re-
form and democratization.
(23) The Partnership for Peace, created in 1994
under United States leadership, has fostered cooperation
between NATO and the countries of Central and East-
ern Europe, and offers a path to future membership in
the Alliance.
(24) At the Washington Summit of the NATO Alli-
ance in April 1999, the NATO heads of state and gov-
ernment issued a communique declaring ‘‘[we] pledge
that NATO will continue to welcome new members in a
position to further the principles of the [North Atlantic]
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Treaty and contribute to peace and security in the Euro-
Atlantic area’’.
(25) In 1999 NATO launched a Membership Action
Plan designed to help interested Partnership for Peace
countries prepare for membership by offering advice and
assistance on programs and membership-related issues.
(26) The Membership Action Plan establishes cer-
tain political, economic, social, and military-related goals
that aspiring candidate nations are expected to meet, in-
cluding the peaceful resolution of territorial disputes, re-
spect for democratic procedures and the rule of law,
human rights, democratic control of the military and
other military reforms, and a commitment to stability
and well-being through economic liberty and social jus-
tice.
(27) In May 2000 in Vilnius, Lithuania, nine na-
tions of Europe issued a statement (later joined by a
tenth) declaring that their countries will cooperate in
jointly seeking NATO membership in the next round of
NATO enlargement and since then have taken concrete
steps to demonstrate this commitment, including their
participation in Partnership for Peace activities and
their commitment to the concept of the Membership Ac-
tion Plan.
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(28) On June 15, 2001, in a speech in Warsaw, Po-
land, President George W. Bush stated ‘‘[all] of Eu-
rope’s new democracies, from the Baltic to the Black
Sea and all that lie between, should have the same
chance for security and freedom—and the same chance
to join the institutions of Europe’’.
(29) The enlargement of the NATO Alliance to in-
clude as full and equal members additional democracies
in Europe will serve to reinforce stability and security in
Europe by fostering their integration into the structures
which have created and sustained peace in Europe since
1945.
(30) As new members of NATO assume the respon-
sibilities of Alliance membership, the costs of maintain-
ing stability in Europe will be shared more widely. The
concurrent assumption of greater responsibility and de-
velopment of greater capabilities by new members of
NATO will further reinforce burdensharing.
(31) The membership of the Czech Republic, Hun-
gary, and Poland has strengthened NATO’s ability to
perform the full range of NATO missions by providing
bases, airfields, and transit rights for NATO forces dur-
ing Operation Allied Force in the Balkans, by their con-
tributions of military forces to NATO missions in Bosnia
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and Kosovo, and by their support for Operation Endur-
ing Freedom.
(32) The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland,
due to their similar recent history, have bolstered
NATO’s capability to integrate former communist na-
tions into a community of democracies and have served
as mentors to other countries that aspire to join NATO.
(33) In supporting NATO enlargement all can-
didate countries must be fully aware of the costs and re-
sponsibilities of NATO membership, including the obli-
gation set forth in Article X of the North Atlantic Trea-
ty that new members be able to contribute to the secu-
rity of the North Atlantic area, and further to ensure
that all countries admitted to NATO are capable of as-
suming those costs and responsibilities.
(34) For those candidate countries that receive an
invitation to join NATO at the Prague Summit, the
process of joining NATO does not end with the invita-
tion but rather with meeting the full responsibilities of
a NATO member, including the completion of issues
identified by the Membership Action Plan, which will
continue beyond Prague.
(35) In considering the enlargement of NATO at
Prague and in issuing invitations to the candidate coun-
tries who have made significant progress toward achiev-
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ing their objectives in the Membership Action Plan es-
tablished by NATO, there is a recognition that each
country invited to join NATO should accede on a com-
mon date but before the date on which the next an-
nounced NATO summit is to take place.
(36) The countries that will be invited to begin ac-
cession negotiations with NATO at the NATO summit
in Prague should not be the last such countries invited
to join NATO and there should be a continuing process
and progress toward the admission of additional democ-
racies in Europe beyond 2002 depending on the degree
to which those countries meet the criteria set forth in
NATO’s Membership Action Plan.
(37) The process of NATO enlargement entails the
consensus agreement of the governments of all 19
NATO member countries and ratification in accordance
with their constitutional procedures.
SEC. 3. COOPERATION BETWEEN NATO AND THE RUSSIAN FED-
ERATION.
The House of Representatives makes the following find-
ings:
(1) The admission into the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) of new members from countries in
Eastern and Central Europe, such as the Czech Repub-
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lic, Hungary, and Poland, will not threaten any other
country.
(2) Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has at-
tached particular importance to the development of con-
structive and cooperative relations with the Russian Fed-
eration in order to overcome remaining vestiges of con-
frontation and competition in order to strengthen mutual
trust and cooperation between NATO and the Russian
Federation.
(3) In 1994, building on previous efforts at co-
operation, Russia joined the Partnership for Peace Pro-
gram, further enhancing the emerging NATO-Russian
Federation dialogue.
(4) On May 27, 1997, in an expression of strong
commitment to work together to build a lasting and in-
clusive peace in the Euro-Atlantic area, the heads of
state and government of NATO and the Russian Fed-
eration signed the ground-breaking ‘‘Founding Act on
Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security Between
NATO and the Russian Federation’’.
(5) On March 18, 1998, the Russian Federation
formally established its mission to NATO and appointed
a senior military representative to facilitate military and
defense-related cooperation between NATO and the Rus-
sian Federation.
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(6) Since 1998, NATO and the Russian Federation
have worked cooperatively with each other in the
Balkans and elsewhere setting the stage for the ability
of an enlarged NATO to continue the cooperative spirit
embodied in the Founding Act.
(7) On May 28, 2002, in an historic step toward
the Alliance’s long-standing goal of building a secure, co-
operative, and democratic Euro-Atlantic area, NATO
took the decisive and substantial step of deepening the
NATO-Russian Federation relationship by establishing
the new NATO-Russia Council.
SEC. 4. UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD NATO.
The House of Representatives declares the following to
be the policy of the United States:
(1) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) should remain the primary institution through
which European and North American allies address se-
curity issues of transatlantic concern.
(2) The member states of NATO should reaffirm,
at the Prague Summit in the fall of 2002, the continued
importance of NATO, renew their commitment to
strengthen the transatlantic partnership, reinforce unity
within NATO, maintain a vigorous capability to carry
out collective defense, and harmonize security policies
and strategies for transatlantic affairs.
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(3) At the Prague Summit, the Alliance, while
maintaining collective defense as its core function,
should as a fundamental Alliance task, continue to
strengthen national and collective capacities to respond
to new threats wherever such threats occur, including
from abroad.
(4) The Alliance, in addition to the strategic con-
cept adopted by the Allies at the summit meeting held
in Washington in 1999, must recognize the need to de-
velop new capabilities, and agree to consider acting upon
the threats posed by the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction and terrorism by intensifying consulta-
tions among political and military leaders, and by devel-
oping comprehensive capabilities to counter these threats
to the international community.
(5) The Alliance should make clear commitments to
remedy shortfalls in areas such as logistics, strategic air-
lift, command and control, modern strike capabilities,
adequate shared intelligence, and the other requirements
identified by NATO’s Defense Capabilities Initiative nec-
essary to provide the ability to carry out the full range
of NATO’s missions.
(6) The Alliance must ensure a more equitable
sharing of contributions to the NATO common budgets
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and to overall national defense expenditures and capa-
bility-building.
(7) The President, the Secretary of State, and the
Secretary of Defense should fully use their offices to en-
courage the NATO allies to commit the resources nec-
essary to upgrade their capabilities to rapidly deploy
forces over long distances, sustain operations for ex-
tended periods of time, and operate jointly with the
United States in high intensity conflicts, thus making
such NATO allies more effective partners.
(8) The member states of NATO should commit to
enhanced intelligence-sharing, law enforcement, police,
and judicial cooperation, and expanded information ex-
changes within and among Alliance members in order to
meet the challenges of new and emerging threats.
SEC. 5. POLICY WITH RESPECT TO THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.
It is the sense of the House of Representatives that—
(1) while maintaining its essential and inherent
right to make its own decisions, the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) should seek to strengthen
its relations with the Russian Federation as an essential
partner in building long-term peace in Europe, and to
that end, the new NATO-Russia Council, in which mem-
ber states and the Russian Federation will work as equal
•HRES 468 EH
partners on mutually-agreed matters, should be wel-
comed and supported;
(2) while retaining its primary commitment to col-
lective defense, NATO enlargement should be carried out
in such a manner as to underscore to the Russian Fed-
eration that NATO enlargement will enhance the secu-
rity of all countries in Europe, including the Russian
Federation; and
(3) in seeking to demonstrate NATO’s defensive
and security-enhancing intentions to the Russian Fed-
eration, it is essential that neither fundamental United
States security interests in Europe nor the effectiveness
and flexibility of NATO as a defensive alliance be jeop-
ardized.
SEC. 6. POLICY WITH RESPECT TO NATO ENLARGEMENT AND
DESIGNATION 
OF 
COUNTRIES 
ELIGIBLE 
FOR
NATO.
It is the sense of the House of Representatives that—
(1) at the Summit to be held in Prague in the fall
of 2002, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) should extend invitations for accession negotia-
tions to any appropriate candidate country that meets
the objectives and targets for NATO membership as out-
lined in the Membership Action Plan process established
by NATO in 1999, including—
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(A) a commitment to the basic principles and
values set out in the Washington Treaty;
(B) the capability to contribute to collective de-
fense and the Alliance’s full range of missions; and
(C) a firm commitment to contribute to sta-
bility and security, especially in regions of crisis and
conflict, and to be willing and able to assume the
responsibilities of NATO membership;
(2) the candidate countries of Albania, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Former Yugo-
slav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slo-
venia should be commended on the significant progress
such countries have made thus far in political and eco-
nomic liberty and military reform necessary for meeting
the objectives for prospective members of NATO as set
out in their own Membership Action Plans;
(3) each candidate country, despite recognized
Membership Action Plan deficiencies requiring further
refinement, could in its own way contribute to stability,
freedom, and peace in Europe as a whole, as many of
such countries have done thus far in the Balkans and in
Afghanistan, and would make a positive contribution to-
ward furthering the goals of NATO should it become a
NATO member country;
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(4) having made significant progress in reforming
their societies and their military forces, and having de-
veloped reasonable, affordable, and sustainable plans to
be able to work within the Alliance structure and to con-
tribute positively to the collective defense of the Alliance
and other NATO missions, the candidate countries of
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slo-
vakia, and Slovenia have met in a satisfactory manner,
the criteria established by NATO in the Membership Ac-
tion Plan process, would likely make a positive contribu-
tion to NATO, and should be invited to begin the acces-
sion process to join the Alliance at the Prague summit;
(5) with respect to candidate countries invited to
join NATO, such countries should accede on a common
date before the next announced NATO summit is to take
place;
(6) after the Prague summit those candidate coun-
tries invited to join the Alliance should continue to par-
ticipate in the Membership Action Plan until accession,
and the accession process should take into account work
conducted under the Membership Action Plan; and
(7) the process of NATO enlargement should con-
tinue beyond the inclusion of such candidate countries
invited to join NATO at Prague, to include those can-
didate countries not so invited at Prague as well as other
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democratic European countries which may express inter-
est in joining the Alliance, and which agree to utilize the
Membership Action Plan to facilitate such NATO en-
largement.
Attest:
Clerk.