"No better, no worse chances"

NATO will decide on the extent of its eastward enlargement at next year's Prague summit, its Secretary-General George Robertson said Friday. "No decision has been taken, either for or against," Robertson told journalists in Warsaw. Poland is one of a group of nine eastern European countries vying for early entry to the alliance. Robertson, who arrived in Poland on Thursday for a two-day official visit, refused to be drawn about the prospects of the three Baltic candidates, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. He described their chances as "no better, no worse than the other six candidates." The other candidates are Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Of Moscow's continued hostility to the alliance's eastward expansion, he said: "NATO does not see Russia as an enemy or a threat but rather as a strategic partner." "We must remain engaged with Russia, in particular with the common mission in the Balkans that is to restore peace and stability in that region," he added. Both NATO and Russia have condemned violence in northern Macedonia by ethnic Albanians rebels claiming to be fighting for the fundamental rights of their community in the country.