Nato

PARIS -- Controversy has suddenly vanished in the U.S. Senate over NATO enlargement, where a few weeks ago NATO seemed likely to provide the long-overdue great debate on U.S. foreign policy.The debate has been swept away by convenient hypocrisy over NATO expansion's costs, and by the Clinton administration's successful re-launch of the enlargement issue as a choice between "appeasement" of Russia and solidarity with the brave Poles and Czechs.The Pentagon's steadily shrinking estimates of the cost of expansion have been accompanied by ever-firmer assurances that the Europeans will pay for nearly all of it anyway.

BUCHAREST, Romania -- NATO is unlikely to immediately put Ukraine and Georgia on a course toward membership, the group's spokesman said last night, dealing a setback to President Bush, who has pushed hard to expand the 26-nation alliance to include the two countries on Russia's southern flank that had been part of the Soviet Union. However, NATO and Bush administration officials presented the question of taking the first steps that could lead to the two countries joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a matter not of whether, but when, as the alliance began a summit amid controversies that go to the heart of its changing makeup and mission as it nears its seventh decade.

WASHINGTON -- The "second creation" began this week with the announcement by NATO foreign ministers in Berlin that after two years of squabbling they have figured out how Europe can take over some defense burdens from the U.S.The solution is dubbed, "Combined Joint Task Forces,` a scheme to let Europeans borrow American intelligence and logistics for peacemaking operations in which only European troops are present on the ground. Moreover, France will soon rejoin the integrated NATO command it left three decades ago. Spain, the other member of the political, but not the military, wing of NATO, will also join the military command."

MOSCOW -- Expressing unusual confidence that it has finally become possible to resolve the biggest diplomatic chasm separating Russia and the West, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl predicted yesterday that the standoff over NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe would end this year."

The most radical military reorganization of NATO in its 42-year history is premised on the need to maintain a U.S. commitment to the defense of Europe while permitting drastic force reductions dictated by the end of the Cold War and budgetary constraints. It also seeks to reconcile the undoubted power of a united Germany with the understandable concerns of Germany's neighbors and, indeed, its own people.This translates into an emphasis on multi-national forces capable of immediate or rapid reaction to crises anywhere in the European area, plus main-force units much reduced from present size that will have the traditional mission of resisting a Soviet nuclear or conventional attack.

PRESIDENT BUSH, Russian President Vladimir Putin and European leaders will unveil a new NATO-Russian relationship tomorrow, taking the first dramatic step that will change the Western alliance forever. The second step will come in Prague in November when NATO will invite up to seven countries to join, taking the alliance from 19 to 26 nations. Those in the running for membership this time are the three Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Slovakia.

Paris -- This week's meeting in Budapest of the CSCE organization -- incorporating all of the governments concerned with European security -- takes place in the midst of tension over the Bosnia crisis and inter-allied conflict over NATO's expansion and the alliance's future role in Europe.One would think CSCE complementary to NATO rather than rival. Its purpose is to assure a dialogue between Russia and the other former Soviet countries and the nations of the Western alliance. It was created in the course of the Cold War's winding down, an element in the detente that broke out when Mikhail Gorbachev launched his reforms of the Soviet system.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- NATO forces yesterday launched the alliance's largest offensive yet against insurgents in southern Afghanistan, marking the start of what both sides predict will be an intense round of fighting over the spring and summer. The operation, centered in the volatile Helmand province, will involve 4,500 NATO troops and about 1,000 soldiers from the Afghan national army, military spokesmen said. Commanders declined to specify how many troops took part in the initial push, or elaborate on the fighting that had taken place.

Baltimore will send an army of public works employees and equipment to help Washington celebrate the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 50th anniversary.Baltimore trash and cleaning crews will work with district colleagues from Thursday through Sunday.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said district leaders contacted the city anticipating a need for extra help in what is expected to be a large cleanup.Pub Date: 4/19/99

THOUGH we're willing to kill for Kosovo, we're not willing to die for it. The Serbs, on the other hand, are willing to do both.And that's the core of our problem.NATO's air campaign in Kosovo has undoubtedly had an impact. It has forced the Serbs to disperse their troops, hide their armor and artillery and perhaps now to use kidnapped Albanian civilians as human shields.Effects of the bombsThere are also signs that the bombing campaign is beginning to drive home the seriousness of the situation to the Serb public.