President Lennart Meri had a meeting with Javier Solana, Secretary General of NATO today. In the morning the President showed Mr. Solana the Old Town of Tallinn. On the meeting in Kadriorg the preparations for NATO's next summit, which is to take place in Washington in 1999, were discussed; this summit will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and the second round of the NATO enlargement will also be discussed there.
President Lennart Meri emphasised that Estonia is content with the decisions and declaration of the NATO Madrid Summit, but, as he put it, it would be impossible to repeat the same thoughts and steps in Washington like a ballet dancer, new steps will also have to be taken. The strategy of the renewing NATO has to be worked out.
Javier Solana said that the NATO Member States have started consultations over the matters to be discussed on the Summit. Solana assured that NATO's open doors policy really is the actual policy of NATO and will be continued. With this policy NATO will try to achieve coherence between the states aspiring to join NATO and NATO's own needs and the processes going on in the US Senate, etc.
For the Washington Summit the strategic concept of NATO will be reviewed and in Washington a document summarising the achievements so far and plans for the future shall be approved.

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