PRAGUE, July 1: With their anticipated invitation into NATO, the Czechs, Poles and Hungarians expect to gain much more than enhanced security.Joining the West's most prestigious and effective club is proof of arriving on the international scene, rejoining Europe after the long isolation of cold war communism.``It's a sort of confirmation of our identity, of being a part of what we always felt a part of, and were rarely recognised as,'' said Michael Zantovsky, former Czech ambassador to Washington and leader of one of the Czech Republic's three governing parties.NATO membership will bring more exchanges and connections with alliance nations. This will have political and economic side effects, anchoring democratic values and free market, he added.The revolt against communism in 1989 swiftly brought the demise of the Soviet military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, to which the three nations belonged.Caught geographically between the mighty Germans to the West and the always-feared Russians to the East, Central Europe scurried for protection against the two nations that, for centuries, were its invaders and masters.Joining NATO keeps Russia, outside the alliance, at bay and compels Germany, a key NATO member, to share interests with its eastern neighbours.
