NATO wannabes meet up with members

RIGA - The military commanders of nine NATO candidate countries met June 5 in Riga to discuss their progress and share experiences. Also attending were representatives from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, which were granted membership in the defense alliance in 1999.

Representatives from the United States, Canada, France and Holland also participated.

Latvian Armed Forces Commander Raimonds Graube said the meeting was productive, stressing that there were many things to learn from countries let into NATO during the last round of expansion .

"There were mainly two things we learned here. On the practical side there is logistics and how important it is to learn more languages," Graube said. "We also learned how a NATO member country will have to act."

All countries seeking membership are given a membership action plan, or MAP, which functions as a guideline on what areas a country will have to improve in order to reach NATO standards. Each country's plan is custom designed.

Though the plans are designed for each country individually, the aspirant nations are encouraged to cooperate. The Baltics have proven to be a leader in military cooperation among candidate countries.

"There's BALTNET, which is an aerial-control system where our three countries are all able to see what's going on in our shared airspace," said Jonas Kronkaitis, head of Lithuania's armed forces. "We have also worked together on various peacekeeping missions."

NATO membership means more to Latvia then just security," Graube said. "It is also a way for our country to break free from its Soviet Union history."

The meeting offered few new insights into military progress, however, and the military officials present shied away from predictions on when the countries might be admitted.

Graube said that participation in NATO is not the final aim, when work and development will end.