OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 37, 21 February 1996

New OMRI Analytical Briefs:
-  "North Korea Blasts ITAR-TASS for Coverage of Embassy Incident",
    by Scott Parrish.
-  "Hungary's Finance Minister Steps Down", by Zsofia Szilagyi
-  "Bulgarian Press Condemns Arrest of Colleagues", by Stefan Krause
-  "Austrian Court Releases Kovac Jr.", by Sharon Fisher

RUSSIA STILL WARY OVER NATO EXPANSION. Russian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Grigorii Karasin told journalists on 20 February that Russia
was "concerned" about recent suggestions by U.S. Assistant Secretary of
Defense John White that American forces might remain in Hungary longer
than the one year IFOR mandate. Karasin said White's suggestion, later
described by the Pentagon as a misstatement, caused Russian officials to
wonder about the implications of NATO building an infrastructure in
Hungary to support IFOR troops in Bosnia. Karasin said Russia feared
that NATO was pushing forward with the "actual intensification" of
expansion, even though Western leaders have recently assured Russia that
the alliance will not expand during 1996. Karasin reiterated the Russian
view that any discussion of NATO expansion was "destructive" and
provoked "distrust and suspicion." -- Scott Parrish

SLOVAKIA REJECTS POLISH PRESIDENT'S STATEMENTS. Slovak Foreign Ministry
spokesman Juraj Matejovsky on 20 February criticized Alexander
Kwasniewski for saying during a recent visit to Budapest that Slovakia
will gain EU membership later than the other Visegrad countries because
of its domestic political situation, Slovak media reported. According to
Matejovsky, Kwasniewski said Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic
could become EU members at the same time. "Slovakia does not consider
the process of integration into EU structures as a race," Matejovsky
stressed, noting that his country "does not...publicly evaluate
difficulties its neighboring countries are experiencing in the
transformation process." Kwasniewski is scheduled to meet with his
Slovak counterpart, Michal Kovac, on 1 March in the High Tatra
mountains. -- Sharon Fisher

HUNGARY, AUSTRIA OUTLINE PLAN FOR ECONOMIC ZONE. Hungarian and Austrian
local government officials have outlined plans for creating an economic
cooperation zone to include three west Hungarian counties and three
Austrian provinces, Magyar Hirlap reported on 21 February. The zone
would cover the Hungarian counties of Gyor-Sopron- Moson, Vas, and Zala
as well as the Austrian states of Burgenland, Steiermark, and
Niederosterreich. Negotiations were chaired by Georg Katz, leader of the
local World Trade Center in Schwechat, Austria. Hungarian ambassador to
Austria Sandor Peisch said the main areas of cooperation would be
infrastructure, environmental protection, and industrial development. He
added that west Hungarian counties will be able to benefit from the EU's
generous support for Burgenland. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

Compiled by Jan Cleave
Compiled by Roger Kangas