Nato growth worries Russia
2004-03-30 09:45
Washington - Seven former Soviet republics and Eastern bloc states formally joined Nato on Monday as their prime ministers deposited "instruments of accession" to the alliance's founding treaty here.
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in a ceremony at the US Treasury, cementing the largest expansion in the now 26-member group's 55-year history.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell presided over the ceremony, marking the first time Nato has embraced former Soviet states and firmly shifted its focus eastward.
Friction
Earlier on Monday, Moscow bristled at the accession of the Baltics even as Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said friction with Russia would be minimized despite the imminent start of patrols there by alliance aircraft out of Lithuania.
"To the seven heads of states here assembled, I say to you and to your people, welcome to the greatest and most succcesful alliance in history. Welcome," Powell said.
Powell said the expansion was a "historic step" in achieving a vision to extend "Europe's zone of freedom and security from the Baltics to the Black Sea".
The seven prime ministers - in addition to the premiers from Nato aspirants Albania, Croatia and Macedonia - joined US President George W Bush at a White House on Monday to mark the occasion.
The United States is the depository nation for the Washington Treaty that created the North Atlantic alliance in 1949 at the height of the Cold War.