It includes planning targets specifically covering areas most relevant for nations preparing their forces and capabilities for possible future membership; and annual meetings to ensure that the assistance provided by NATO and its member states is as effective as possible.

The Plan does not provide a checklist for countries to fulfil, nor does participation in the programme prejudge any eventual decision by the Alliance on issuing an invitation to begin accession talks. Such decisions will be made only on a case-by-case basis by all Allies on the basis of consensus.

Each year, NATO Foreign and Defence Ministers will consider progress on activities under the Membership Action Plan. NATO Heads of State and Government will review the enlargement process at their next summit meeting which will be held no later than the year 2002.

The door to NATO membership thus remains open to other European countries ready and willing to undertake the commitments and obligations stemming from NATO membership and contribute to security in the Euro-Atlantic area. The admission of new democratic members into NATO is itself part of a wider process of greater integration in Europe involving other European institutions.


NATO AND RUSSIA: A NEW RELATIONSHIP

NATO’s primary role for forty years was to convince the leaders of the Soviet Union that an attack on the NATO members would be costly and, ultimately, unsuccessful. Although for much of this period, it seemed very unlikely that the Soviet leaders would risk launching such an attack, there were moments when no one could be sure. The ideology of the Soviet Union, the political system it imposed on its own people and on the states of Central and Eastern Europe which had come under its influence, the way it sought to extend its domination over other countries and, above all, its excessive investment in military power, all contributed to the need for a strong Allied defence. NATO and the Soviet Union were thus locked in a political and military stand-off that could have had dire consequences for Europe and the world if it had turned to military confrontation. When the Soviet Union was dissolved in December 1991 a potential major threat, which had preoccupied NATO since its foundation, finally disappeared. The NATO countries set themselves the goal of developing a partnership with Russia, which became the primary successor state to the former Soviet Union. NATO invited Russia to join the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NAC-C), established as a forum for cooperation between NATO and former Warsaw Pact nations. Russia became one of the founding members. The partnership became more formal when, in June 1994, Russia joined the Partnership for Peace initiative.