NATO aspirants preparing for Prague: joining the alliance is number one priority for 10 European nations.

• Author: Book, Elizabeth G.
• Position: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will invite new members into its ranks at the Prague Summit this November. Ten countries are applying, all from central and southeastern Europe.

The Baltic states--Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania--are among the countries expected to join. Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria are likely to be accepted. Slovakia, Albania, Croatia and Macedonia are also applying, but their chances of getting in are considered slim.

Each candidate has been working on NATO'S new member action plan (MAP), a five-chapter agenda of specific items that must be accomplished before the country is invited to join the alliance. In addition to minimum levels of technological military capabilities such as long-range radar, the countries must prove themselves as serious candidates by making efforts in developing functioning market economies.

To join NATO, a country must spend at least 2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on defense. Some of the aspirant countries already are committing more than that. Through the MAP, the countries also must answer tough questions about internal government corruption and social or ethnic problems.

NATO aspirants will have to carry their weight as military allies if asked to join the alliance. "They are not going to get into NATO unless they can prove to the prime ministers and presidents in November that their commitment to modernizing their militaries is going to be sustainable, and not just a snapshot before the decision is taken," said Lord George Robertson, secretary-general of NATO.

The new NATO members will not in any way match the military brawn of the United States, but they will contribute specialized training capabilities. Many of the countries have specialized military units, such as military police, medics, mine-detection and mountain forces. "We've already got people, forces, from all of the applicant countries serving in the Balkans, and serving extremely well," Robertson said.

On the whole, the NATO aspirant countries, which have formed a unique alliance with one another called the Vilnius Group, understand what is expected of them. "We are not waiting to get into a country club; we are willing to rake the risks and make contributions," said Sorin Ducaru, Romanian ambassador to the United States.

The aspirants are also universally committed. "To be a member of NATO is our primary goal in international policy," said Davorin Kraaun, Slovenian ambassador to the United States. There is a high degree of solidarity within the Vilnius Group. "An invitation for one country is a success for all the others. An invitation for all is a success for Europe," said Kraaun.

The Baltic States

The Baltic states, three tiny Northern European countries wedged between Russia and the Baltic Sea, seek to provide NATO with strategic access to the East, as well as specialized military services. For the 50 years prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Baltic states were occupied by the Soviet Union, but were never recognized as part of the Soviet Union by the United States. The United States always seemed to know that the Baltics were "unhappy" members of the Soviet Union, said Jeremy Shapiro, of the Brookings Institution.

"We are not looking at the NATO enlargement or entrance as a finish line. We would like to become full partners, good partners, and continue to do business for a long time," said Col. Raimonds Graube, commander of the National Armed Forces of Latvia.

"Our basic philosophy is to have a modern, mobile, small, light-armored force. We're not talking about greasers, we're not talking about fighters at this stage of development, we're talking about modern anti-rank and defense capabilities," said Graube. "Above all, we have to have modern command, control, communications and intelligence," which must be interoperable with NATO, he said.

The Baltic states have been working together to modernize their armed forces. This past year, Latvia and Estonia worked together on an unprecedented joint procurement project, to acquire three-dimensional long-range radar. They purchased Lockheed Martin Corp.'s TPS-117 radar system, which is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2003. The radar will be part of BALTNET, the Baltic States Air Surveillance Network, which can be plugged into NATO war rooms in Brussels, said Andzejs Vilumsons, a political-military attache at the Embassy of Latvia in Washington, D.C.

"You ask how we can contribute to NATO, and one part is with the mobile, modern force, but the other point is to talk about specialized forces. We don't have a large infantry with many units, but we do have...