§ Mr. GapesTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on Her Majesty's Government's policy towards expansion of NATO to the Visegrad countries. [39996]
§ Mr. David DavisThe NATO summit in January 1994 confirmed that the alliance expected and would welcome expansion of its membership to include democratic states to its east, as part of an evolutionary process, and taking into account political and security developments in the whole of Europe. In December 1994, NATO Foreign Ministers set in hand work on a study into the practicalities and principles of enlargement. This study has now been completed and was presented to all partners in Brussels on 28 September. Copies of the study have been placed in the Library of the House.
The alliance is agreed that it would be premature to discuss at this stage which countries might be invited to join.