The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Smith of Oregon). The Senator from Virginia.
The Committee has provided $15,300,000 in FMF grant assistance to accelerate the Baltic States integration into NATO.
This action comes following similar action in last year's statement of managers. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record excerpts from the text of last year's language.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
The Committee has not continued the prior limitations on the international military education and training program for Indonesia. However, the Committee expects the Defense Security Assistance Agency to consult with the Committee regarding any plans to provide IMET to Indonesia, given past human rights concerns and the continued influence of the Armed Forces in Indonesian political and economic affairs. Any participants should be carefully vetted and courses should emphasize civilian control of the armed services.
* * * * *
The conference agreement retains House language which provides that the obligation of funds for any non-NATO country participating in the Partnership for Peace shall be subject to notification.
Mr. WARNER. Here the language says:
These funds [$18,300,000] are provided to enhance programs aimed at improving the military capabilities of these nations and to strengthen their interoperability and standardization with NATO. . . .
Mr. President, Partnership for Peace, is, I presume, the primary means by which these countries could work within the NATO framework. But I must say that I regret that this language is so specific as to use the word `grant assistance to accelerate the Baltic States integration into NATO.'
The Senate considered NATO expansion very thoroughly earlier this year, at which time I, together with my distinguished colleague from New York, expressed our strongest reservations, particularly as it related to a timetable of any nature, for further admission of nations into NATO.
This does not spell out a timetable, but it certainly gives them, in this language, together with the funds, a recognition which in my judgment is inappropriate, certainly at this time when the situation in Russia is so tenuous, as explained in the previous debate on NATO expansion, and in the context of the Baltic States. I will leave it to my colleague further details on that. But it is the judgment of the military planners in NATO that providing NATO assistance to these countries, should it be necessary, could well involve the use of nuclear weapons. I say that because inclusion of these nations in NATO at some future date is a matter that will have to be considered with great care and thoroughness by all NATO nations.
I just think at this time to incorporate the language in an act of the Congress of the United States, presumably to be signed by the President, would send an improper signal into the community of nations who are desiring to join NATO at some future date.
So I basically stated my views on it. I yield the floor, Mr. President.
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The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hagel). The Senator from New York.
Mr. MOYNIHAN. I join my revered friend the senior Senator from Virginia in this matter and would begin by reminding the Senate that in the debate on expanding NATO to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, he forcefully made the point that the administration was already talking about a further expansion to the Baltic States. That would be a thumb in the eye of the Russians. The language from the Committee report which Senator Warner has just read implies that the Senate has come to agreement on the matter when it clearly has not.
Estonia and Latvia have large Russian minority populations and all three have tenuous relationships with Russia. Yet it seems to be working, considering these three independent nations were held `captive'--subsumed by the Soviet Union--for three-quarters of a century. Latvia recently dismantled a Soviet radar station, and there are some accommodations being made for minorities in these nations.
Expanding NATO to include the Baltics would be provocative in the extreme, as the Russians have made so clear. The Russians who would like to continue to make reforms in their troubled country have said: `Don't do this.' Those leaders who seek the greatest liberalization of Russian society have said `Heavens, don't give this weapon to the enemies of democracy and market enterprise. Don't put us in a situation where nuclear war in Central Europe is not to be dismissed as an outlandish improbability.'
I remarked yesterday, in a statement supporting the International Monetary Fund replenishment that the situation of the Soviet military is alarming to the point of despair. In Krasnoyarsk, General Alexander Lebed, who is now governor there, has, by reports published in Moscow, undertaken to pay the Soviet strategic forces located in his Krai. The people with their hands on the triggers of the nuclear missiles are not being paid. I suggest the first rule of government is: Pay the Army. In a situation that is unstable, to take this posture regarding Nato expansion is to invite misunderstanding and worse.
Mr. President, there is nothing we can do to change the report language, but I would like to make the point that it has not been decided that any of the Baltic states should join Nato. I do not think that the term `accelerate the Baltic States integration into NATO'--accelerate: faster than planned--such a term is not appropriate.
If it were possible in conference for the distinguished chairman and the ranking member to see that this does not become part of the conference report itself or the accompanying statement of managers, I think that would serve stability in Central Europe and the security of the United States.
I will make no accusations. The Senator from Virginia and I simply say: Do not casually get into a situation that will be thoroughly misread and deeply resented by the people we most want to have as our friends in Moscow. And particularly not on a day when the President himself is there.
With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor. I see no other Senator seeking recognition, so I respectfully suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Roberts). The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Iowa is recognized.
END