Bush-Putin row grows as pact pushes east· US backs membership for Georgia and Ukraine
· Rifts within alliance on role and strategy
Luke Harding in Moscow, Julian Borger in Bucharest and Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
The Guardian, Wednesday April 2 2008
George Bush and Vladimir Putin yesterday appeared to be on a collision course ahead of today's critical Nato summit in Bucharest, which could determine the future of the alliance and its relationship with Russia.
In a visit loaded with symbolism, President Bush travelled to Kiev yesterday to declare "strong support" for Ukraine's membership of Nato, in defiance of Moscow which adamantly opposes the alliance's eastwards expansion.
"Helping Ukraine move toward Nato membership is in the interest of every member in the alliance and will help advance security and freedom in this region and around the world," Bush said.
He also backed Nato accession for Georgia and said Russia could not exercise a veto over the Atlantic alliance's membership. The blunt declaration does not bode well for a Nato-Russian meeting on Friday, at the end of the Bucharest summit and a bilateral meeting between Bush and Putin two days later at Sochi, on the Black Sea.
It is likely to be the last meeting between the two before Putin leaves office on May 7, and it is burdened with sharp disagreements over Nato expansion, US missile defence plans, and strategy towards Iran.
The Nato enlargement issue will come to a head first as Nato leaders decide on new members. Bush faces stiff opposition not just from Russia but from within the alliance. Both Germany and France oppose membership for the former Soviet Republics, arguing that neither Georgia nor Ukraine are ready and enlargement would further worsen European relations with Russia.
A single veto will be enough to block Nato offering the two aspiring members a Membership Action Plan (MAP) setting out a list of targets that countries have to meet in order to join, but Bush, speaking in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, after a meeting with President Viktor Yushchenko, said he had not given up hope of winning the argument at the Bucharest summit.
"I wouldn't prejudge the outcome yet," the US president said. ......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/02/nato.georgia
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
