The White House Tuesday played down differences with Eastern European countries over a go-slow approach to bringing them into NATO and protecting them with the West's security guarantees.
"I think that different countries obviously have a different view of exactly how this should be structured," White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said. "But I think that this is something that we've gotten a very good reaction to. That's not to say that there isn't some debate about the details.""There are some questions about it, but I think it's unfair to characterize it as we're having trouble selling it," Myers said.
She said the United States has not set any deadline for fulfilling the hopes of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for membership in the 16-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Instead, she said, President Clinton still believes that the best approach is a plan known as the Partnership for Peace, which offers Eastern European countries closer cooperation with NATO but stops short of full membership.
The president will fly to Brussels, Belgium, this weekend for a NATO summit on the future of the alliance and the role of Eastern European countries. The 10-day trip also includes stops in Russia, Prague, Minsk (the capital of Belarus), and Geneva.
Fears about the rise of Russian nationalists and the specter of Russian expansion have given new urgency to the desires of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for NATO membership. Under NATO's doctrine, a military move against any member is considered a strike against all alliance countries.
However, the Clinton administration is concerned that granting Eastern European countries full NATO membership now would strengthen the hand of Russian ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who has argued for recreating the once-vast Soviet empire.
Polish President Lech Walesa said Monday that NATO's go-slow approach was "short-sighted and irresponsible" and could bring a "major tragedy."
"We are too weak and we have to accept almost everything, but we don't forecast anything good for this concept," he said in an interview with The Washington Post.
Similarly, Czech President Vaclev Havel has pushed for full NATO membership, saying that Clinton's proposal could not be a substitute for full security guarantees.
Myers said the United States sees the Partnership for Peace "as something that will evolve over time, that is meant to be an opening toward the East and something that we see as an important, historic step toward bringing Eastern Europe and Central Europe into a more complete partnership."
In advance of the NATO summit, Clinton sent Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright, to Eastern Europe to calm fears about limited association with NATO.
Shalikashvili, in an interview with Central European journalists Monday, said Russia will not decide the composition of NATO.
"Let me be very clear about it, Russia does not have a veto over who will join or not join," Shalikashvili said.