U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage Voices Support for
the Most Robust Possible Accession to NATO membership at
“The Spring of New Allies” Summit in Bucharest, Romania

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage stated in Bucharest, Romania, that the United States looks forward to the most robust accession possible to NATO membership this November in Prague. Mr. Armitage is visiting Romania on the occasion of the “Spring of New Allies Summit” which reunites, between March 25 – 26, the Prime Ministers of Europe’s new democracies candidate to NATO membership: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, F.Y.R. of Macedonia, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia.

The Summit in Bucharest is part of the Vilnius Process, launched in 2000 by the NATO candidate countries to promote further NATO enlargement based upon the principles of solidarity, self-performance and contribution to the Euro-Atlantic security. The “Spring of New Allies” Summit is intended to highlight the cooperation among NATO candidates and individual contributions in the fight against terrorism, as well as the value of a Southern dimension of NATO enlargement, as part of a balanced and robust process.

On Monday Deputy Secretary Armitage conveyed a message by U.S. President George W. Bush to the Summit participants and met with President of Romania, Ion Iliescu, and Prime Minister of Romania, Adrian Nastase. In his meetings with the Romanian authorities Richard Armitage underlined that Romania is a very cooperative partner and acknowledged Romania’s participation in the peace-keeping forces in Kosovo /KFOR/, and Bosnia /SFOR/, as well as in the International Security and Assistance Force in Afghanistan. President Iliescu and Prime Minister Nastase reaffirmed Romania’s strong interest to further strengthen the Strategic Partnership with the United States, as well as Romania’s firm commitment to further stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States in the fight against terrorism.

Deputy Secretary Armitage also presented the joint letter of U.S. Senator Tom Daschle, Majority Leader, and U.S. Senator Trent Lott, Senate’s Republican Leader, to Prime Minister Adrian Nastase and the Summit participants.