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U.S. President sets stage for showdown at NATO summit

MOSCOW: George W. Bush has strongly backed Ukraine and Georgia in their bid to join NATO, setting the stage for a showdown on the issue at a NATO summit in Romania later this week. The U.S. President, on his first visit to Ukraine, said he would press for Ukraine and Georgia to be offered NATO Membership Action Plans (MAP) to prepare them for formal induction.

“In Bucharest this week, I will continue to make America’s position clear. We support MAP for Ukraine and Georgia,” Mr. Bush said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in Kiev on Tuesday. “Helping Ukraine move towards NATO membership is in the interest of every member of the alliance and will help advance security and freedom around the world.”

Germany, France, and a number of other NATO members are opposed to granting NATO membership to Ukraine and Georgia. “We think that it is not a good answer to the balance of power within Europe and between Europe and Russia,” French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in an interview on Tuesday.

Mr. Bush insisted that Russia “should not fear” NATO’s expansion, but Mr. Yushchenko conceded that he saw NATO membership as the only way to “guarantee Ukraine’s sovereignty.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the NATO summit in Bucharest to argue Moscow’s case against NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia. Russia has warned that this would deal a blow to security in Europe.

Ukrainian membership of the Western alliance will “entail a deep crisis in Russian-Ukrainian relations,” Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told a hearing of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, the Duma, timed to coincide with the Bush visit to Kiev.

Moscow has accused the West of dragging Ukraine and Georgia into NATO against the will of their people. Over 60 per cent of Ukrainians are opposed to NATO membership. In Georgia, two breakaway territories — Abkhazia and South Ossetia — are categorically against joining NATO, even as elsewhere in Georgia over 70 per cent support the plan.

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