28 April 1998
THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary April 28, 1998 PRESS BRIEFING BY MIKE MCCURRY The Briefing Room .................... Q: What do you say to those critics of NATO expansion who argue that the only reason the President and those members of Congress who support NATO expansion are involved in this is for domestic political reasons, at the expense of real serious national security concerns? MCCURRY: Well, that's a short-sighted argument if you think of the support within the Alliance itself. Sixteen countries have come together now and said in the interest of peace and security in Europe, we need to take this important step to expand that Alliance; in the interest of a peaceful, undivided Europe and the future of a continent that has seen too much war in the 20th century, for the 21st century we need to think about how to modernize that most valuable treaty alliance that we have ever undertaken as a people. All of the reasons that we've set forward and made clear that it is in the interest of all the people of the United States to pursue this type of security arrangement with the three new countries who are about to become members of NATO. And it is certainly true that this subject is of keen interest and communities here in the United States that have an ethnic identity with these countries -- but in reality, the future of this alliance and the future of the indispensable role the United States in Europe ought to be a source of concern to all Americans. ............. (end transcript)