NATO: embracing former enemies

Agreement Over NATO Expansion

The expansion, was announced by NATO's Secretary General, Javier Solana. He said the three new members would be ratified on the 50th anniversary of the Washington Treaty in April 1999. He added that the Alliance would continue to welcome new members, and that NATO would expect to invite other countries to join in coming years.

Javier Solana announces NATO's Expansion plans

It is expected that Romania and Slovenia will be strong candidates for the next wave of expansion - France and Italy had led a group of nations arguing for the two countries to be included in the current enlargement. The French President, Jacques Chirac, warned that NATO could damage its cohesion by excluding them.

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the US President, Bill Clinton, had presented a common front to slow down enlargement.

Bill Clinton gets his way

Clinton reacting to the summit decision

"The statement we released today and the decision we made was a genuine consensus effort and I am profoundly grateful to all of my fellow world leaders who are part of NATO," Clinton said after the Western alliance had agreed to the largest expansion in its 48-year history.

Blair:A big expansion

Tony Blair says it's a realistic, sensible agreement

"I think yes, of course some countries would like to have gone further but I think we got a realistic, sensible agreement," he said. "People understand that the whole purpose of Nato is collective defence, that an attack upon one is an attack upon all. Now it's for that very reason that we have got to be so careful of expanding this military guarantee."

Rejecting talk of rifts within Nato and particularly between the US and the French, he said: "What is important is to understand this is not a political club that people are joining; it is a military alliance and, if we are to put our fighting forces into the front line, we have to very sure that it's the right thing to do." That meant moving "carefully, step by step" to ensure Nato remained strong as a defensive force, he said.

Spain warned over Gibraltar

Robin Cook's comments were made in a British radio interview and risked embarrassing the summit hosts even though the future of the territory was not on the agenda.

He said that Spain's position on the use of Gibraltar as an air-base was standing in the way of it being accepted into the military structure of NATO. "The issue that is in dispute is the question of the access of our military aircraft to the airport at Gibraltar. Spain, at the moment, makes that very difficult because it does not provide proper air space for our military planes, or indeed our civilian planes, to take off there," he said.

He added: "Our case is that if Spain wishes to come fully into the alliance and into the integrated command structure then it must behave as an ally when we want our military aircraft to go in and out of Gibraltar."

The Spanish Foreign Minister Abel Matutes said: "Spain believes that an agreement will eventually be reached, but it will not lift any restrictions that might affect its rightful claim to sovereignty."

Spain claims the isthmus on which the airport is sited. Without her relinquishing that claim, it is difficult to see how an agreement can be reached.

The NATO leaders urged Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia to apprehend about 70 suspected war criminals who remain at large.

There was no suggestion of using the NATO-led peacekeeping force, SFOR, to arrest the suspects. NATO governments say they have no mandate to do that.