BUCHAREST, April 2: The United States pressed for Ukraine and Georgia to be put on track to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as a summit of the alliance began here on Wednesday while key European nations objected to the move.
Leaders of the 26-strong military alliance sat down to an opening dinner after the United States and Germany sparred over offering a membership plan to the two former Soviet states.
US President George Bush threw down the gauntlet in a pre-summit speech, calling on reluctant Nato states to “welcome” the two former Soviet states into the alliance with the offer of a “Membership Action Plan”, the formal precursor to an invitation to join.“My country’s position is clear: Nato should welcome Georgia and Ukraine into the Membership Action Plan,” said Mr Bush, who held a symbolic meeting in Kiev with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday en route to the summit.
But arriving at Bucharest airport for the summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “We have reached the conclusion that it is too early to give both countries MAP status.
“The message is: the door is open. We see a perspective for accession. We want to help both countries go toward MAP,” she said.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: “There is not a single pressing reason to poison relations with Russia this year.”
Russia has objected to the expansion of Nato into territory on its frontier, and France and Germany are leading a bloc of 12 Nato nations against the step.
On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said his country opposed Georgia and Ukraine’s entry “because we think that it is not a good answer to the balance of power within Europe and between Europe and Russia”.
“Ukraine and Georgia is a very difficult issue for some nations here,” Mr Bush later responded. “It’s not for me. I think that these nations are qualified nations to apply.”
The dispute is not the only issue expected to chill the mood over dinner at the President’s Palace.
AFGHAN OPERATION: Another key issue at the three-day summit, which will feature a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, is the alliance’s troubled operation in Afghanistan.
Pre-summit tensions over Afghanistan appeared to be narrowing somewhat.
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying he was “optimistic” a deal could be done despite his country’s objections that other member states are not pulling their weight.
Five years since taking over the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Nato allies are struggling to maintain momentum with reconstruction, and few are willing to send troops to the south, where the resistance is at its peak.
Canada, which has suffered rising casualties, has made its continuing presence in southern Afghanistan conditional on others providing at least 1,000 troops as reinforcements along with helicopters and unmanned aircraft.
“I am not worried. I am very optimistic that we’ll achieve our objectives,” Mr Harper said at a conference in Bucharest.
Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said at a pre-summit meeting: “We are not failing, we are prevailing” in Afghanistan.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has promised more troops for Afghanistan, but Mr Fillon had said on Tuesday that the details had not yet been decided.
Officials have suggested that France would send its contingent to eastern Afghanistan, close to their base in Kabul, freeing up US troops there to move south to help out Canada.
Other matters related to Nato enlargement have also been controversial.—AFP
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