NATO Candidate States Issue Declaration for Collective Bidding

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, July 07, 2002

NATO Candidate States Issue Declaration for Collective Bidding

Leaders of 10 former Soviet bloc countries aspiring to join NATO issued a declaration Saturday, reaffirming their collective bid for the membership of the alliance.

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Leaders of 10 former Soviet bloc countries aspiring to join NATO issued a declaration Saturday, reaffirming their collective bid for the membership of the alliance.

"We recognize that we are in the midst of an historic endeavor,not only to defend our democracies from the threat to our freedomsposed by terrorism, but also to build a Europe that is truly wholeand free," the declaration said.

Leaders from 10 candidate states -- Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia,Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, together with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- are attending the two-day meeting, which opened on Friday in the Latvian capital.

The leaders, in the declaration, also pledged to accelerate military reforms and honor social commitments after the November 21-22 NATO summit in Prague, where the 19-member alliance is expected to issue invitations for new membership.

US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair made video addresses to the meeting, expressing their support for the expansion of NATO.

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