POLAND PREPS FOR NATO ENTRY.

Polish prime minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said yesterday that Warsaw was stepping up its preparations to join NATO, despite recently intensifying objections to the expansion of the Western alliance voiced in Moscow. Cimoszewicz said that Poland’s National Defense Committee — comprised of the country’s president, prime minister, key ministers, as well as parliamentary and army leaders — had met on January 6 and decided to establish a special body to coordinate Poland’s preparations for NATO membership. (Reuter, January 7)

Belarus-Russia Relations Seen as Unrelated to NATO’s Enlargement Plan.