§ Mr. CorbynTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is his estimate of the costs of NATO expansion to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic on the defence budgets of those countries and no other NATO members separately identifying the costs to the United Kingdom. [4403]
§ Mr. Tony LloydTwelve countries have applied to join NATO.
No decision has been taken on which countries will accede to NATO membership. The costs of enlargement, which fall both on the countries which join and on existing members of the Alliance and which will be incurred over a long period, will depend on that decision. Subject to that caveat, we expect the costs of enlargement to be manageable.
The US Government report to Congress in February 1997 gives an estimate of the direct additional costs of NATO enlargement of between $9 billion to £2 billion.