By Thomas W. Lippman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 13, 1999; Page A1

Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic formally joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization today, receiving the security guarantees and assuming the military burdens of the alliance that stood against them when they were members of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.

In a ceremony both solemn and joyous, the foreign ministers of the three countries -- two of them former dissidents who were exiled or imprisoned for opposing communist rule -- submitted legal documents to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. After suffering repeated invasions and occupations during the 20th century, often while the West stood by, the three Central European states for the first time have a security guarantee from the United States, which is now legally bound to go to war to defend them against any external attack.

The leaders of all 19 NATO countries are scheduled to take part in the alliance's 50th anniversary summit next month in Washington. The summit will focus on the challenges and difficult choices that lie ahead for NATO, and especially on the effort to define a new strategic mission now that the Soviet Union has disintegrated and Russia is no longer an adversary.

The three new states face the additional challenge of adapting their armies so that they can be full participants in NATO operations. That will likely mean heavy additional military spending, including purchases of Western planes and other hardware, for countries still struggling to build capitalist economies and raise living standards that fall far below those of Western Europe.

Today, however, at an event that would have seemed unthinkable just a decade ago, the theme was not anxiety about the future but celebration, celebration of survival, of perseverance against great odds, of triumph over oppression.

"The Czech traumas of the century have now been relegated to history," said Foreign Minister Jan Kavan, recalling that as a young dissident exile he happened to be in nearby Kansas City when Soviet tanks crushed the "Prague Spring" uprising in 1968.

Though they are usually careful not to say so directly, the Polish, Czech and Hungarian governments all see NATO membership as the final guarantee that they will not be threatened by Russia. Accession to NATO is "the guarantee that my country will never again be the powerless victim of foreign aggression," Kavan said.

"For a long time it has been our aspiration to be part of this family," said Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi of Hungary, who said his country "drove the first nail into the coffin of communism" with its anti-Soviet uprising in 1956.

"Poland will be a good and credible ally, in good and bad weather," said Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek, a key leader of Poland's Solidarity labor movement who was imprisoned after its suppression in 1981. "Today Poland forever returns to where she has always belonged, to the free world."

All three ministers stressed that their countries now feel they are inextricably linked to a democratic community of western nations to which they have always felt they rightfully belonged but from which they were separated by World War II and the Iron Curtain.

The event had a special resonance for the Czech-born Albright, herself a refugee from the same communist power that controlled Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia for half a century after World War II. She beamed as she signed the accession documents with a flourish, and hugged her three counterparts.

"Today, we recognize in fact what has always been true in spirit," she said. "Today we confirm through our actions that the lands of King Stephen and Cardinal Mindszenty, Charles the Fourth and Vaclav Havel, Copernicus and Pope John Paul II reside fully and irrevocably within the Atlantic community, for freedom. And to that I say, to quote an old Central European expression, `Hallelujah.' "

As host, Albright picked the site for the ceremony at the Truman Library in Independence, the home of Harry S. Truman, who was president when NATO was created in 1949. She selected this date, officials said, because it is the 52nd anniversary of Truman's announcement of U.S. aid to Greece and Turkey, the first building block of the U.S. commitment to European security that led to the creation of the NATO alliance.

NATO had 12 members when the alliance was forged to counter the Soviet threat to Western Europe. It has expanded four times, adding Greece and Turkey in 1952, Germany in 1955 and Spain in 1982, after the death of Francisco Franco.

The Clinton administration is committed to adding more countries as former Soviet satellites complete the transition to democratic government and open economies, but the question of which additional countries should be taken in, and when, is one of the most difficult facing the alliance.

Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania and the Baltic States all aspire to membership, but no new invitations are to be extended at the Washington summit, administration officials said. Because NATO acts on the basis of unanimity, an expanding membership could further complicate the debate over how to respond to crises outside NATO's membership area, such as the conflict in Kosovo.

Membership requires democratic government, transparent budgeting, military compatibility and settlement of regional and ethnic disputes, according to criteria that have evolved informally since President Clinton embraced expansion as a cornerstone of U.S. security planning for Europe. But even countries that qualify are not assured of membership any time soon, U.S. and European officials have said, because their aspirations must be balanced against NATO's desire to work in partnership with Russia.

Russia repeatedly has objected to NATO expansion, but has acknowledged it can do little to hold it back. In that light, NATO and Russia signed a cooperation accord in 1997 and since then have organized regular liaisons between their militaries.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, however, warned in a statement today that the three countries' accession to NATO "could lead to the appearance of new dividing lines" in Eastern Europe. It encouraged Eastern European nations to focus instead on a security charter under the aegis of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"The nations entering our alliance today are the first new members since the Cold War's end, but they will not be the last," Albright said, reflecting U.S. policy to push ahead despite the Russian objections. "For NATO enlargement is not an event, it is a process."

Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.), chairman of the Senate NATO observer group, said he will press for a commitment to Slovenia at least at the Washington summit, "to make clear that the door really is open." Sen. Gordon H. Smith (R-Ore.), who also flew here with Albright, said he hopes NATO eventually will take in Ukraine as well.

Looking East

With yesterday's addition of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to the existing 16 members, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has expanded for the first time since 1982.