so there was the entry into nato. it was one of the main tasks i had when i was in washington, because it was during that time that, this lady also went something to do with that, that president clinton came to prague in 1994, in january, preceded by a trip by madeleine and the

general. and announced in prague that it was no longer a question of if but question of when and how nader would be enlarged and four years later we joined. and if you look and that are as every event in history the our revisionist around who will tell you that it was the wrong move and nato should never be enlarged, et cetera, but if you look at the situation of the countries that did join nato in the late 90s and early century, that means the four countries of central europe, the baltic countries, and contrasted that with the situation in

ukraine, moldova belarus and in some of the countries of south eastern europe macedonia, et cetera, et cetera, you can see what enormous source of stability that was which enabled us to take the next step which was to join the european union as the political and economic integration of europe. so that all three were linked and all three were i think the most important thing that happened on the foreign policy front, and we all owe him for that. >> and let me say that trip that you're talking about first lady hillary clinton gave a speech at radio free europe, and that was a very important signal. and i have to say i have no

greater pleasure than being able to announce the secession of the czech republic to nato in prague, and president havel was there. it was really amazing. i think we have to -- >> thank you both. >> one more quick question. my follow-up on the last question but i wonder how you would explain the success of the czech republic from the velvet revolution to develop a thriving democracy, a dynamic economy to join the eu? is a something in the spirit of the czech republic? why was it successful in other countries in the balkans or the former soviet union have not had that success? >> well, it was it was certainly a combination and i would be the first to say that

it's work in progress. because it's not, it's not perfect, and there are things we continue to be unhappy about. some of them have been engineered, and we will have to all work some more. but we were lucky in several ways, unlike many of the countries in that part of the world. we did have a genuine and indigenous tradition of a democratic government before the second world war and the government that madeleine's father had come and so we have something to follow up on.