On 31 May 1987, after the Warsaw Treaty Organisation Summit held in East Berlin on 29 May 1987, the French daily newspaper Le Monde discusses the proposal of the seven member states of the Pact to open consultations with NATO on a mutual and controlled reduction of armed forces and armaments in Europe with a view to ending the continent’s military imbalances.

On 6 July 1990, the Heads of State or Government of the Member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) issue the London Declaration on a transformed North Atlantic Alliance. The Declaration includes a series of proposals aimed at fostering cooperation with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs) through a wide range of political and military activities and, in particular, through the establishment of regular diplomatic contacts between these countries and NATO.

On 8 November 1991, at its Summit Meeting in Rome, the North Atlantic Council adopts a Declaration on Peace and Cooperation which outlines the path to be followed for the reorganisation and rationalisation of the Alliance’s political and military structures and procedures so that it may carry out its new tasks relating to crisis management and the maintenance of peace in Europe.

On 20 December 1991, the inaugural meeting of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council is held at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels in the presence of the Foreign Ministers and representatives of the 16 NATO member countries and nine Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs).

On 22 December 1991, two days after the meeting of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), the French daily newspaper Le Monde speculates on Russia's reaction to the probable enlargement of NATO to include the countries of Eastern Europe.

On 10 January 1994, at the Brussels Summit, the Heads of State or Government of the Member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) launch the Partnership for Peace (PfP), calling on the other States participating in the work of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC) and on the other countries attending the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), that are able and willing to take part in this programme to join them.

On 10 January 1994, at the Brussels Summit, the Heads of State or Government of the Member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) publish the Partnership for Peace (PfP) Framework Document.

On 10 January 1994, during the Brussels Summit, the Heads of State or Government of the member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) invite all the partner countries that make up the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC) and the other Member States of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) to take part in the new Partnership for Peace Programme (PPP).

On 10 January 1994, at the Brussels Summit, the Heads of State or Government of the member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) call on all the partner countries which have seats on the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC) and the other member countries of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) to take part in the new Partnership for Peace Programme (PfP).

In February 1994, Manfred Wörner, Secretary-General of NATO and President of the North Atlantic Council, outlines in the NATO Review the new tasks of the Atlantic Alliance.

In 1994, Manfred Wörner, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and President of the North Atlantic Council, grants an interview to the French journal Politique internationale in which he sets out the new role of NATO and establishes the risks facing security in Europe.

In October 1994, Piotr Kolodziejczyk, Polish Defence Minister, writing in the NATO Review, analyses the new partnership relations between Poland and the Atlantic Alliance.

In 1994, Willy Claes, former Belgian Foreign Minister and NATO Secretary General, grants an interview to the French journal Politique internationale on the risks of military instability in Europe and the revival and future missions of the Atlantic Alliance.

On 30 April 1996, at the School for Advanced International Studies/American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at the Washington campus of the Johns Hopkins University, Volker Rühe, German Defence Minister, gives a lecture in which he sets out his opinion on the new tasks of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

‘A new member’. In the mid 1990s, the cartoonist Fritz Behrendt depicts the new spirit of cooperation developing between member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and Russia.

On 9 April 1997, in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro, Mikhail Gorbachev, former First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, refutes the reasons adduced to justify the eastward expansion of NATO and analyses the impact of the accession of former Soviet Union satellite states to the Atlantic Alliance on Russia.

On 27 May 1997, in Paris, the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security is signed by the North Atlanitc Treaty Organisation (NATO) and by the Russian Federation.

On 27 May 1997, at the NATO-Russia Summit in Paris, Jacques Chirac, President of France, emphasises the implications of the signing of the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation.

In June 1997, in an article published in the Spanish magazine Política Exterior, Javier Solana, NATO Secretary-General, outlines the role of the Atlantic Organisation in the world and, in particular, in Europe on the eve of the new millennium.

In September 1997, Jean-Luc Dehaene, Belgian Prime Minister, emphasises the importance of the relations between the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in connection with European unification after the end of the Cold War.

In April 1998, Romano Prodi, Italian Prime Minister, gives his views in the journal Affari Esteri on security policy in Europe in the light of the geopolitical changes which have taken place in recent years.

En été 2000, François Heisbourg, président du Centre de politique de sécurité de Genève, décrit dans la Revue de l'OTAN le caractère complémentaire des politiques de défense de l'Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord (OTAN) et de l'Union européenne et plaide pour un renforcement des capacités militaires de l'Europe pour éviter d'être de plus en plus réduite à jouer un rôle réactif d'une utilité limitée en matière de défense et de sécurité.

In summer 2000, commenting on the implications of a European Security and Defence Identity (ESDI), Peter Schmidt, Head of the Department of European and Atlantic Security at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik Research Centre in Ebenhausen (Federal Republic of Germany), outlines the nature and the possible consequences, with particular regard to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), of the European Union’s plans to absorb Western European Union (WEU) and to establish a rapid reaction corps by 2003.

Au Sommet de Prague, les chefs d'État et de gouvernement des 19 pays membres de l'OTAN et des 27 pays partenaires examinent les principaux dossiers qui concernent la sécurité et la stabilité euro-atlantiques.