Accession
of the Czech
Republic,
Hungary
and Poland

North
Atlantic
Council

16 Mar. 1999

Návrh vystoupení p.premira

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Dear Secretary general, Prime Minister Orbán, Prime Minister Buzek, Ambassadors

Yesterday, the Czechs commemorated the 60th anniversary of the occupation of what was left of Czechoslovakia by the Nazi troops. This was one of the steps leading to the outbreak of the World War II. Since that strategic day, Czechs were exposed to the experiments of totalitarian ideologies for almost half a century.

In 1938 and 1939, the democracies of the West were weak and short-sighted. Their selfishness was expressed by the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in his famous words describing Czechoslovakia as "the far away country of which we know little". The war which followed shortly on cost of the millions of lives and left Europe in ruins and moral horrors of the Holocaust.

The Western allies emerged from this carnage shattered materially but their spirit was unbroken. With the indispensable assistance of the United States the Western Europe emerged in less than 10 years as an area of democracy, freedom and prosperity. The Marshall Plan from which Czechoslovakia was forced by Stalin to opt out and the Atlantic Alliance founded in Washington in 1949 created the environment that led to denationalisation of security and establishment of the common market in 1957. This development contributed to a great extent to Franco-German rapprochement and reintegration of the Western Germany into the family of European democracies.

The fate of the Iron curtain so ominously confirmed by 1948 February coup in Czechoslovakia determined the fate of the Eastern half of the Continent. The Soviet invasion of 1968 only made the traumatic experience with communism more serious.

Fall of the Berlin wall and the Velvet revolution in 1989 brought about the unique opportunity to extend the area of peace and prosperity in the West to the Central and Eastern Europe. We have finally embarked on the path leading us to the Europe which is undivided and free. It is only symbolic that we are setting the important milestone on this way almost exactly 10 years after the fall of the Berlin wall. This year will be remembered as a turning point in our history. There is still much work left undone but today's ceremony is a proof that the direction we have chosen is the right one. We consider it as a vote of confidence in our future, in the future of Central Europe and in the future of Europe.

There are still regions in Europe which are still in the grips of the past. The development in the Former Yugoslavia is particularly tragic. The international community must take a strong stand against aggression, violations of human rights and suppression of basic freedoms. The Czech Republic takes part in this effort. The options are never easy and they require a lot of courage, patience, perseverance and resources. But it is my firm conviction that the time is on our side and against autocratic leaders who are trying to keep their profitable positions by any means.

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Since the emergence of the Czech Republic in 1993, our integration into NATO and European Union was confirmed as a the strategic foreign policy objective of every government in power regardless of its political orientation. 1994, the Czech Republic signed a PfP Framework Document and took an active part in the Partnership for peace programme. We derived great benefit from our participation in PfP, which in turn contributed to increased efficiency of the transformation processes in the sphere of national defence. We consider the PfP a unique instrument of engaging the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in NATO activities.

The decisions taken at the NATO summit in Madrid in July 1997 to invite the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to start the accession talks opened a new chapter in our relations with the Alliance. The accession talks were successfully concluded in November 1997 and the Accession protocols were signed at the NATO ministerial meeting in December. We consider the ratification of the accession protocols in NATO countries a remarkable and unique process which have shown the highest degree of trust development in the three invited countries enjoy in all NATO countries. The decision to ratify was taken in all of them after a careful consideration. The fact that in all cases this was done with overwhelming majority is something I would like to thank to you all.

After the signature of the accession protocols, the Alliance opened to us most of its businesses. For the last 14 months we have had a unique opportunity to observe the NATO's daily operations and to prepare for the day when we will finally take our seat between our distinguished colleagues from Canada and Denmark. We have learned en invaluable lessons that helped us to speed up our preparation for membership.

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We fully realise that to make our contribution to the Alliance credible we have to prepare our domestic structures for the membership. We have created a new model of national security system based on the National Security Council as an advisory body to the government. The government have approved the Security Strategy of the Czech Republic and will consider in coming weeks the Military strategy. We are continuing in restructuring our armed forces. We have participated in the process of Alliance's defence planning which enables us to a great extent to meet the minimum requirements of the membership. The development of Host Nation Capability is one of our priorities.

We are working hard on a package new draft legislation on armed forces. A new legislation on protection of classified information came into force on November 1, 1998. The implementation of the provisions of the law has been a great challenge for the government but we believe that the short time difficulties may actually turn out to be a good basis on which we can build an efficient system of the protection of classified information in a long run. Within the structures of the National Security Council, we have created the instruments of co-ordination of defence and civil emergency planning . The training of our officers who should work in the NATO structures and in our national delegation is proceeding according to a plan.

I would like to stress that we do not consider by any means our task finished by the day of our accession. We realize that there is a world of difference between accession and full integration. We see this day as only the first step on the long way. We would like to focus primarily on achieving the "interoperability of minds" to join the specific and unique political Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland have just entered remains open for the other countries. The summit should approve a strong package of practical measures to assist the interested countries meet the NATO standards. The Czech is ready to share its own experience.

The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland have just entered remains open for the other countries. The summit should approve a strong package practical measures to assist the interested countries meet the NATO standards. The Czech Republic is ready to share its own experience.

The Czech Republic will never be a country which can offer to its allies the great number of troops, equipment and other defence assets. Our ambition, however, is to contribute through quality of what we offer, and in particular on the high quality of our people. We strongly believe that we can offer our expertise in specific areas of joint efforts.

Since the emergence of the modern Czech nations in the middle of the 19 century the great Czech political leaders, like Frantiek Palack, Tom G. Masaryk and Edvard Bene realized that the security of the Czech lands depended on the security of the whole Europe. T. G. Masaryk even stated: The Czech question is basically a European question. Over the last 150 years we have tried different security models and arrangements. My strong hope is that this day will mark the beginning of the era and security not only for the Czech Republic but also for the whole Europe.

Thank you very much.