Tony Blair Addresses NATO Candidate Summit

Bucharest - The candidate countries which will meet the Washington criteria will be invited to join the NATO during the summit due in Prague, British Prime Minister Tony Blair says in a message sent to Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase and the participants in ''The Spring of New Allies'' taking place in Bucharest on March 25-26, 2002.

Tony Blair says that the Great Britain gives all-out support for the North-Atlantic Alliance's enlargement and wants that all the countries meeting the accession criteria, set by Washington administration, to be invited to be members of the military bloc, at the Prague summit.

The British Prime Minister says in his message that one should take advantage of the Prague summit to turn the NATO into a modern, flexible and well-structured alliance for the new challenges of  security of the present.

Tony Blair commends the solidarity shown by the candidate states in the fight against terrorism, and the cooperation with the forces of the Alliance in the Balkans or Afghanistan. He encourages the candidate countries into going on with the reforms, stressing that in the lengthy process of the development of modern and efficient armed forces, the Great Britain will stay by the side of the new allies.