...As Hungary Nears NATO Status
BUDAPEST, April 18 (Reuters) — NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, touring prospective new members, arrived on Thursday in Hungary which has made fast friends with the United States by providing a support base for Bosnian peacekeeping forces. The success of the operation at Taszar and Kaposvar, bases for U.S. troops serving in Bosnia, shows the Hungarian military can work with Western armies and improves Hungary's prospects for joining NATO, analysts and diplomats said.
"Now everybody realises that Hungary and not Poland, at the moment at least, is the most important (east European) country strategically," said Laszlo Valki, a professor of international law at Budapest's Eotvos University. "It has been a very important learning process for the Hungarian army — how to deal with the American troops — and although it is not yet integration it is cooperation."
Solana, on a tour of east European and Baltic states, flew to from Warsaw and will meet Prime Minister Gyula Horn, Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs, Defence Minister Gyorgy Keleti and President Arpad Goncz. Government and diplomatic sources, while not foreseeing a breakthrough announcement, expected Solana to confirm at least privately that Hungary was in the first tier of prospective NATO members.
Western diplomats noted that a steady stream of U.S. generals passing passed through the region had had nothing but praise for the Hungarian military. "This is the only central European state thus far that has a Western military facility in operation," one diplomat said. "American generals who have come through here have each said in turn the U.S. government could not have fulfilled its responsibility... without Hungary."
Mainstream Hungarian political parties are united in backing Hungary's entry into NATO and for the most part dismiss Russian objections to the military alliance's expansion plans. "We wish very determinedly to become full members of NATO and within a very short time," said Imre Mecs, president of parliament's defence committee.
Russia's ambassador to Budapest, Ivan Aboimov, caused a stir when the Hungarian news agency quoted him as saying on Wednesday that Russia would be forced to take countermeasures if Hungary joined NATO. "As NATO is a military organization, Russia would also take measures of a military nature," Aboimov was quoted as saying. Diplomats and analysts said Russia had made similar statements about Poland and the Czech Republic, but Aboimov's comments were harsher than Russia's usual public tone towards Hungary.
"But the Russians are unable to do anything against NATO enlargement," said Valki. "They have talked about short-range tactical nuclear weapons and deepening the military integration among CIS countries, but this is not very serious." He added: "Besides, Russia is far away and thank God we have got the Ukraine between us."
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