Seven New NATO Members Are Hailed in White House Ceremony

WASHINGTON â€”  President Bush welcomed seven Eastern European nations into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Monday in a White House ceremony marking only the fourth time the alliance has opened its ranks to new members since its founding after World War II.

Bush hailed the new members -- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Slovenia -- as countries that have triumphed over tyranny. Standing with prime ministers during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Bush said the nations “earned their freedom through courage and perseverance, and today they stand with us as full and equal partners in this great alliance.�

Three of the new members -- the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia -- are former Soviet republics. They and the other new members join the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland as countries that once were home to Soviet troops but now are allied with the onetime enemies of the Soviet Union.

The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland have been NATO members since 1999.

NATO was established in 1949 by the United States, Canada and 10 European countries to counter the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Now, nearly 40% of its 26 members are former Communist countries.

“Welcome to the greatest and most successful alliance in history,� Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told the prime ministers.

Bush, highlighting how the NATO mission has changed over the decades, emphasized the support the Eastern European countries have given to recent U.S.-led military campaigns and the battle against terrorism.

“They understand our cause in Afghanistan and Iraq because tyranny for them is still a fresh memory,� the president said.

But at a breakfast with reporters before the ceremony marking the alliance’s largest expansion to date, NATO’s chief said the organization’s involvement in Iraq would be limited until Washington seeks a new resolution from the United Nations.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance might be willing to assume a role in Iraq if the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing an international security force to serve there. It might even be willing to take command of part of that force, Scheffer told reporters.

The alliance has been divided by the war in Iraq. France and Germany, two key members, opposed the war. Public opinion in other member counties, including Spain, opposes sending troops. Pentagon officials have said privately they hoped the support for the war demonstrated by the seven new members will be a factor in swinging NATO policy on Iraq.

Scheffer said NATO might get involved if, in addition to passage of a new Security Council resolution, the interim Iraqi government that is expected to take political control of the country on June 30 asked for troops.

“I think that the NATO allies would enter that discussion with a positive attitude, which could mean that NATO, as far as command is concerned, could participate or could take over a certain part of the stabilization force,� Scheffer said.

At a NATO meeting in December, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he hoped the alliance would consider playing a role in Iraq, possibly taking command of a multinational division now headed by Poland.

Scheffer said he hoped the 18 NATO countries that now have forces in Iraq under U.S. command would keep them there. He said he was not offering advice to Spain, whose incoming government has said it would withdraw troops from Iraq unless the United Nations took control.

“But I am saying in general that this is not a good moment to withdraw forces,� he said. “They should stay put.�

A Security Council resolution authorizing a multinational force in Iraq is “politically essential,� Scheffer said, adding that talks on the details should begin as soon as possible.

By formally handing over their accession documents to join the alliance, the new member countries are assured military protection by NATO troops. The new members will take their seats at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels on Friday.

Monday’s accession ceremony took place on a picturesque day in the capital, with cherry blossoms in full bloom and hundreds gathered for the White House ceremony. As the prime ministers strode to the podium, they were greeted by applause from their national delegations, with some waving their countries’ flags.

Powell said Monday that he supported the ambitions of three other nations -- Albania, Croatia and Macedonia -- to join.

Addressing Russian concerns that NATO’s growth could pose a threat, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, “NATO’s expansion is not a threat to anyone.�