President of RSFSR Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich MEMORANDUM about results of the delegation of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR's visit to Belgium on invitation of the NATO Headquarters In accordance with your decision from June 29 to July 2 1991 the parliamentary delegation consisting of members of the Committee on Security visited NATO Headquarters in Brussels The purpose of our trip was to familiarize the NATO leadership with the Russian Parliament's position on defense issues and to study the new tendencies in NATO evolution after the dissolution of the Warsaw Treaty Organization During two days our delegation had numerous meetings with NATO officials at different levels Our interlocutors exhibited great interest in the transformations and the situation in Russia Everybody gave a high assessment of the democratic presidential elections in Russia as evidence of the first free declaration of the will of the people NATO officials with whom we spoke noted justifiably that the results of the elections had clearly confirmed the main trend that is supported by the majority of Russians--the course toward democratic reforms The delegation received thorough briefings about NATO activities under current conditions On our part we explained to the leadership of the North Atlantic bloc that Russia does not intend to create is own armed forces but at the same time believes that it is natural that it would have an influence over the construction of the Union armed forces proportionate to its material contribution to their development We put forward as we believe an important idea that NATO should make a clearer more detailed and definitive statement about the need for a gradual decrease in the military efforts of that organization This could have great significance for the democratic forces in Russia and generally in the Union who are fighting for large cuts in the defense budget in order to allocate major resources for the implementation of economic reforms We stated frankly that NATO's political lagging behind the current realities in Europe could be used by the conservative forces in our country to preserve the military-industrial complex of the USSR in its current state and to seriously slow down democratic transformations Expanding NATO to include new members as we emphasized would be seen negatively in the USSR and the RSFSR Our statements were met with understanding by our interlocutors On July 1 the delegation had a meeting with M Woerner--NATO Secretary General The top NATO official spoke about the need for direct contacts among representatives of the USSR armed forces Russian parliamentarians and administrative structures In his statement he responded in a way to our proposals in particular he said that he had received a written statement from Bush about reductions of American troops in Europe in the near future by 80 thousand men Woerner stressed that the NATO Council and he are against the expansion of NATO 13 out of 16 NATO members support this point of view In the near future at his meeting with L Walesa and the Romanian leader A Iliescu he will oppose Poland and Romania joining NATO and earlier this was stated to Hungary and Czechoslovakia We should not allow stated M Woerner the isolation of the USSR from the European community During the meeting the NATO leadership expressed its wish to develop direct contacts with the republic that plays a leading role in formulating the USSR's defense policy as well as with the new union of sovereign republics Similar wishes were expressed by representatives of the North Atlantic Assembly--NATO's interparliamentary body One has to emphasize that democratic changes in Russia the largest republic of the USSR have the potential to exert a serious impact on the reformation of NATO where political cooperation is becoming the main function In principle they are ready for active cooperation in this sphere with the USSR and the RSFSR Chairman of the Committee on Security of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet S Stepashin Chairman on the Defense Committee of the RSFSR Council of Ministers K Kobets Advisor of Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet on Defense and Security D Volkogonov 03 07 1991 Source State Archive of the Russian Federation GARF Fond 10026 Opis 1 Translated by Svetlana Savranskaya National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu