Keeping the Process Afloat, 1995

Abstract

The year 1995 was a year of leisurely approach to NATO enlargement. Throughout 1995, the Russian attitude would remain problematic although the Russian Foreign Ministry by the end of 1994 had signaled that it would be prepared to accept NATO membership for the Visegrad countries in exchange for territorial guarantees with respect to the Kaliningrad oblast and a prohibition on the stationing of nuclear weapons and foreign forces there. As for the East Central Europeans, there were growing concerns that the prospects for NATO membership were growing dimmer given that NATO had agreed to “freeze” the discussion on enlargement until after the December 1995 Russian parliamentary elections and the country’s June 1996 presidential elections.