1997 Madrid summit

The 1997 Madrid summit was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the sixteen members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and their partner countries held in Madrid, Spain, on 8–9 July 1997. It was the 15th NATO summit and the second in 1997, the previous one being held in Paris. The summit was notable for inviting three new members, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic to join the alliance.

NATO Summit Madrid 1997
1997 Madrid Summit
Host countrySpain
Date8–9 July 1997
Venue(s)Institución Ferial de Madrid
CitiesMadrid
Follows1997 Paris summit
Precedes1999 Washington summit
Websitewww.nato.int

Summit

Venue

The summit was held at the pavilions of the IFEMA fairgrounds. The government of Spain allocated 1.3 billion pesetas (€7.8 million) for the development of the summit.[1]

NATO Enlargement

The topic of enlargement was the main focus of the summit. The result of the summit was that Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic were invited to join NATO. Fellow Visegrád Group member Slovakia was excluded from this invitation. Slovakia had held a referendum on NATO membership in May 1997, but turnout in the referendum failed to achieve the required 50% of eligible voters and government sabotage was blamed, which in turn was viewed as one of a string of undemocratic measures taken by Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar.[2] A majority of NATO members reportedly supported France's proposal to also immediately invite Romania and Slovenia as members, but this was strongly opposed by U.S. President Bill Clinton, and even an "iron-clad guarantee" that they could be invited in two years time was watered-down in favor of an "open door" policy for new potential members.[3] A main concern for the United States was the cost of potentially raising the military standards of the new Eastern European members. Estimates put this cost at as much as US$10 billion, which participants worried could lead to the treaty recognizing the new members being rejected by the Republican-held U.S. Senate.[4]

Distinctive Partnership

Additionally, a "Charter on a Distinctive Partnership" was signed between NATO and Ukraine, creating the NATO-Ukraine Commission and establishing relations between the two,[5] and a declaration supporting peace efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina was read and signed by participants.[6]

Participants

The official meetings were led by NATO Secretary General Javier Solana. One notable absence from the summit was Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia, which was instead represented by lower level bureaucrats.[7][8]

Secretary of Defense William Cohen, accompanied by National Security Advisor Samuel Burger (left) and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (right), speaks during a press conference, held 8 July 1997, at the Miguel Ángel Hotel, Madrid, Spain. The three policy leaders talked to reporters about the historic decision, made earlier in the day at the NATO summit, to invite Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, three former members of the now defunct Warsaw Pact, to begin accession negotiations to join the NATO alliance.
Key
Non-NATO member
Country or
organization
Head of Delegation Title
 NATO Javier Solana Secretary General
 Albania[lower-alpha 1] Bashkim Fino Prime Minister
 Armenia[lower-alpha 1] Alexander Arzumanyan Minister of Foreign Affairs
 Austria[lower-alpha 1] Viktor Klima Chancellor
 Azerbaijan[lower-alpha 1] Heidar Aliev President
 Belarus[lower-alpha 1] Alexander Lukashenko President
 Belgium Jean-Luc Dehaene Prime Minister
 Bulgaria[lower-alpha 1] Petar Stoyanov President
 Canada Jean Chrétien Prime Minister
 Czech Republic[lower-alpha 1] Václav Havel President
 Denmark Poul Nyrup Rasmussen Prime Minister
 Estonia[lower-alpha 1] Lennart Meri President
 Finland[lower-alpha 1] Martti Ahtisaari President
 France Jacques Chirac President
 Georgia[lower-alpha 1] Eduard Shevardnadze President
 Germany Helmut Kohl Chancellor
 Greece Costas Simitis Prime Minister
 Hungary[lower-alpha 1] Gyula Horn Prime Minister
 Iceland Davíð Oddsson Prime Minister
 Italy Romano Prodi Prime Minister
 Kazakhstan[lower-alpha 1] Auyeskhan Kyrbasov Ambassador
 Latvia[lower-alpha 1] Guntis Ulmanis President
 Lithuania[lower-alpha 1] Algirdas Brazauskas President
 Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker Prime Minister
 FYR Macedonia[lower-alpha 1] Kiro Gligorov President
 Moldova[lower-alpha 1] Petru Lucinschi President
 Netherlands Wim Kok Prime Minister
 Norway Thorbjørn Jagland Prime Minister
 Poland[lower-alpha 1] Aleksander Kwaśniewski President
 Portugal António Guterres Prime Minister
 Romania[lower-alpha 1] Emil Constantinescu President
 Russia[lower-alpha 1] Valery Serov Deputy Chairman of the Government
 Slovakia[lower-alpha 1] Vladimír Mečiar Prime Minister
 Slovenia[lower-alpha 1] Janez Drnovšek Prime Minister
 Spain José María Aznar (host) Prime Minister
 Sweden[lower-alpha 1] Göran Persson Prime Minister
  Switzerland[lower-alpha 1] Adolf Ogi Federal Councillor
 Turkey Süleyman Demirel President
 Turkmenistan[lower-alpha 1] Çary Niýazow Ambassador to France
 Ukraine[lower-alpha 1] Leonid Kuchma President
 United Kingdom Tony Blair Prime Minister
 United States Bill Clinton President
 Uzbekistan[lower-alpha 1] Abdulaziz Kamilov Minister of Foreign Affairs

Other events

On the evening of 8 July 1997, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía welcomed the heads of State, of Government, of Delegations and their companions at the Royal Palace, where they hosted a state dinner.[9]

See also

References

  1. "Spain will dedicate 1.3 billion to the NATO summit in Madrid". El País (in Spanish). 27 March 1997.
  2. Kukan, Eduard (1999). "Slovakia and NATO". In Anton Bebler (ed.). The Challenge of NATO Enlargement. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 164–166. ISBN 0-2759-6108-7.
  3. King, John; Hurst, Steve (8 July 1997). "NATO invites Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic to join". CNN. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  4. King, John (6 July 1997). "Big Issues Confront NATO at Madrid Summit". CNN. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  5. "NATO's relations with Ukraine". NATO. 29 September 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  6. Heads of State and Government of NATO (8 July 1997). "Special Declaration on Bosnia And Herzegovina" (Press release). Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  7. Black, Joseph Laurence (2000). Russia Faces NATO Expansion: Bearing Gifts Or Bearing Arms?. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 59–60. ISBN 0-8476-9866-1.
  8. "Heads of Delegation". NATO. 4 July 1997. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  9. "Address by his Majesty King Juan Carlos I". NATO.int. NATO. 8 July 1997.
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