Five into NATO won’t go

Enlarging too far, too fast, could bust the alliance

Apr 3rd 1997|

IT IS too soon to cheer, but NATO is cautiously hopeful that next month Russia will sign up to a special partnership with the alliance. By easing Russia's concerns, NATO will then have cleared the biggest obstacle to a first opening of its doors since Spain joined in 1982. The invitations to the first new members from Eastern Europe will be issued, to a volley of champagne corks, at a special summit at Madrid in July. Then the hard work starts. Inducting the new recruits, while engaging the still prickly Russians in the new NATO-Russia council and adjusting to NATO's own internal military shake-up, will keep in-trays at headquarters overflowing. But just how difficult life after the summit will be depends in part on a decision yet to be taken: who is to be invited to join.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Five into NATO won’t go”