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NATO eyes expansion - but not for all who want to join (Roundup)
Apr 2, 2008, 17:32 GMT
US President George W. Bush (L) walks with his Romanian counteraprt Traian Basescu (R) on the Black Sea beach at the presidential summer residence of Neptun resort, 300km south-east from Bucharest, Romania, 02 April 2008. Bush is in Romania to take part in the NATO Summit in Bucharest between 2-4 April 2008. EPA/ANDREI PUNGOVSCHI - POOL
Bucharest - A dispute over enlarging NATO in the Balkans and towards an angry Russia was set Wednesday to dominate talks at a major three-day summit of NATO leaders in Bucharest.
'My country's position is clear: NATO should welcome Georgia and Ukraine into the Membership Action Plan (MAP),' US President George W Bush said in a speech in Bucharest on Wednesday morning.
It is 'too early' for Georgia and Ukraine to receive a MAP, replied German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her arrival.
Five countries are currently pushing for a closer relationship with NATO: Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Ukraine and Georgia.
The two formerly Soviet republics have asked to be given a MAP, which should pave the way towards an offer of membership in the future.
That aim has been fiercely opposed by Russia, which threatened to target missiles on Ukraine and recognize the independence of two breakaway Georgian regions if such a move ever materialized.
'Russia is not our enemy. We are working toward a new security relationship with Russia whose foundation does not rest on the prospect of mutual annihilation,' Bush said.
Some NATO members had argued that a decision to offer Georgia and Ukraine a MAP just as a new Russian president is set to take power would be to throw away a golden opportunity to improve relations.
On Friday, outgoing President Vladimir Putin is set to join the NATO leaders for talks on thorny issues ranging from Kosovo to US plans to site anti-ballistic-missile defences in Europe.
NATO officials said that they hoped for a constructive meeting.
The other three countries, Albania, Croatia and Macedonia, all already hold a MAP. At NATO's last summit, in Riga in 2006, alliance leaders sent the trio a 'clear signal' that they would be invited into the organization at Bucharest if they met NATO standards.
Diplomats on Wednesday indicated that Croatia and Albania were all but certain to receive an invitation by Thursday morning.
But Macedonia's fate was threatened by a dispute over its name with Greece, which sees Skopje's use of the name 'Macedonia' as an inherent claim on its own northern province.
'No solution (of the name issue) means no invitation' for Macedonia, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyianni told reporters as she set off for Bucharest.
However, NATO officials on Wednesday ruled out the possibility that a rejection of Macedonia would also lead to the rejection of its neighbour Albania - an option some NATO countries had raised as a way of reducing the negative impact of such a move on Macedonia.
'What happens in the context of one country will not affect the aspirations of others,' NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.
As well as discussing enlargement, NATO's leaders are set to meet on Thursday with their counterparts from all those countries which have contributed troops to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd are among the 60 world leaders set to attend the meeting, together with top representatives of the European Union and the World Bank.
Speaking shortly after his arrival in Bucharest, Bush said the alliance must 'maintain its resolve and finish the fight in Afghanistan.'
As part of that fight, NATO launched on Wednesday its own online TV news channel aimed at challenging the Taliban's current supremacy in media operations in Afghanistan.
The meeting in Bucharest opened amid tight security, with an estimated 35,000 security officers including army units on patrol. Some 47 anti-NATO activists were apprehended by police.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
...that's just peachy. There is, however, the 8,000(?) nukes Russia has pointed at us, so I guess that pretty much means...
you're wrong.
Russia is run by the same assholes it's always had. While they've thrown off Marxism, they kept a whole lot of the old thinking. Just look at them: Playing power politics with Natural Gas, nuke tech to Iran, trying to squeeze the Baltic states, bullying the former satellite nations, etc.
Sounds pretty much like the cold war to me, Lance.
Putin playing power politics with Natural Gas to Europe is, admittedly, funny considering the euros swallowed the Trans-Siberian Pipeline faster than Monica swallowed Bill on a Saturday night. That's what you get for profiting from slave labor though, a stain on your dress.
Now, Bush has Putin's ass chaffed by proposing ABM's in Poland. Mind you, not a cent has been spent, but it's driving Putin bonkers. This is Bush's response to the Iran nuke tech. Bush wants an agreement to stymie Iran's nuke tech and Putin wants a proxy in the Middle East. Putin has to undermine his defense in order to proceed.
Bush is there to push all of this into their faces. Otherwise, why would he bother to go? How effective will it be? Not very...
By the way, Bush is the benficiary of an ivy league education. In fact, he and Kerry, who presents himself as some kind of intellectual, had about the same grades, at the same institution.
Why does Bush always walk like he has his head up his arsk ?
I have only one thing to say to Russia - 'Sour Grapes'
Putin is a ego-centric maniac !
Yes, I understand that Bush got a high school diploma. Graduating from Yale just makes it that much more incredulous. But, Yale does have some very enlightened alumni so I won't hold it against them, they must have thought of Bush's diploma as a mercy certificate, not realizing the disgrace it would bring to the institution later on.
In any event, the USSR and the communistic (and social) tenets in general, had a statement of non-coexistence with incompatible systems of which capitalism was one and hence the Cold War. Russia does not have that tenet. Although the non-informed would hardly suspect a difference, and people bigoted against Russians would also harbor outdated ill will.
''Although the non-informed would hardly suspect a difference''
So it is OK for them to have thousands of ICBM's pointed at us and to support our sworn enemies because they do not have a 'tenant of incompatibility'...
Thanks for playing 'lance'.
'So it is OK for them to have thousands of ICBM's pointed at us'
They are doing that as bargaining chips to get the U.S. to stand down (or give them lots of cash to stand down). They are a relic of the past. Russia actually doesn't want their ICBMs anymore. I know, it isn't much of a bargaining chip, but they are trying to play the game (snicker, snicker).
Anyways, you have shown your ignorance enough times, so bye.
Lance --- Russia is our enemy and will always be our enemy. Russia don't want to be a member of Nato, or have Nato member states on its border. The Russians are by history mentally handycapped. They fear everybody and everything. Russia has spent billions to make trouble for the U.S.A. and Europe. 60 years of protecting Western Europe from the U.S.S.R Empire. Its no wonder the Eastern European nations are flocking to join Nato.
Now Russia is threating Europe again. Should we be threatened - NO - Surround the son of a BIT -- and point missiles back at them. Give them a taste of their own medicine. The world needs to teach Russia that acting like a child will get them nowhere. Germany and France being democratic states need to find what they have lost (Bal--). The Will to further Democracy and freedom of others. The French have always had a lack of guts, but the Germans???? What gives. Maybe 60 years of being protected by the U.S.
'Russia is our enemy and will always be our enemy.'
Do yourself a favor ... make some Russian friends. Then you will find out that they are just nice folk (except for a few megalomaniacs just like in the U.S.). The biggest enemy you have is yourself.
Is Bush holding hands with yet another of his boy friends. As for talks its more like Bush cracks some bad joke and then wonders whats for Lunch. Bush is proof that America is run from a higher place.
Whats really funny is that a USA under a Bush administration continues the self-destructing policies that already got them into the hospital.
The USA behaves like a white guy walking over into the L.A ghetto to give the first street gang member he sees a hug. *lol*
Next, he wakes up in a hospital and wonders what happened.
'Should i have asked myself if that guy wanted a hug from someone like me in the first place ?'
First he gives Iraq a hug..thinking they want one.
And we see everyday in the news how gravely the iraqis longed for something like that... ;)
Now he walks to Ukraine and Georgia where people hate him as much as people in Russia do and says 'Hey, its me ! Come on let me give you a hug and a free membership in my golf club !'
Meanwhile other people who REALLY would like a hug from him...Tibet...Taiwan....get ignored..and wonder why Bush tries to hug China now...
page: 1
lanceApr 2nd, 2008 - 19:27:41
'Russia is not our enemy. We are working toward a new security relationship with Russia whose foundation does not rest on the prospect of mutual annihilation,' Bush said.
No way! I can't believe the turkey said that. Let me spell it out: The USSR is NOT Russia and the U.S. has never had that policy towards Russia. Russia is a 'God fearing nation', the USSR was a 'godless commie nation', to put it in Cold War vernacular. Good grief, did Bush really get a high school diploma? I mean, did he pass a history test or what? What foreign policy experience does he REALLY have? Does he really think there is any reason for pointing nukes at Russia anymore?
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