Slovenia, Romania Not Invited to the NATO Expansion Ball

BRUSSELS — Slovenians are stunned. They simply can’t understand why one day they were flying high on the way to NATO membership, and the next day the biggest gun in the alliance has shot them down.

President Clinton fired the potentially fatal shot Thursday, saying he will support only the candidacies of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic when the 16-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization opens its doors to new members at a July 8-9 summit in Madrid.

That left Slovenia and Romania, candidates backed by a majority of NATO members, apparently out in the cold--at least until a later round of expansion.

A NATO official said Friday that Secretary-General Javier Solana will be talking with heads of government, as well as their NATO ambassadors, trying to reach a consensus on expansion in about 10 days.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said it is not certain the U.S. view will prevail--despite Washington’s dominant role.

Slovenia, probably the most successful of the former Yugoslav republics, has 2 million people sandwiched between Austria and Croatia. Its government has been working hard to build a vibrant European democracy.

The nation has worked just as hard to join NATO and the European Union, eager to distance itself from its troubled Balkan neighbors.

“Why?” asked Foreign Minister Zoran Thaler. “Slovenia was told so many times that we fulfilled all the criteria. We don’t cost a lot. We have support in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and we are not causing any problems with Russia.”

Indeed, the day before Clinton’s announcement, 12 U.S. senators signed a letter to Clinton urging support for four countries, including Slovenia.

For Romania, the news of Clinton’s rejection came as Petre Roman, speaker of the nation’s Senate, was in Washington wrapping up a visit meant to boost the country’s chances of getting into NATO.

Romania had pushed hard for NATO membership, part of its effort to move from communism to capitalism and democracy. But even before Clinton’s announcement Thursday, U.S. officials had tactfully suggested that Romania wasn’t quite ready.

“It hurt, and the people in Romania will be disappointed, because we still maintain Romania should have been in the first round,” Roman said.

Southern European members of NATO, led by France and Italy, have lobbied on behalf of Romania and Slovenia. They argue that adding the two countries would reinforce NATO’s southern flank and boost stability in the volatile Balkans.