Thread: NATO allies say no to Bush on Ukraine, Georgia

NATO allies say no to Bush on Ukraine, Georgia
Setback comes as U.S. wins support for European anti-missile shield



Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
President Bush delivers a speech at the National Bank of Savings in Bucharest on Wednesday.

MSNBC News Services
updated 2 hours, 56 minutes ago
BUCHAREST, Romania - President Bush suffered a painful diplomatic setback Wednesday when NATO allies rebuffed his passionate pleas to put former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia on the path toward membership in the Western military alliance.

The decision, to be made final on Thursday, was sure to be cheered by Moscow, which heatedly opposes NATO's eastward expansion.

In another sign of discord, Greece blocked Macedonia's request to join the 26-nation alliance because of a dispute over its name. Only Croatia and Albania will be invited as new members.

However, senior American officials said Thursday that NATO leaders have agreed to fully endorse U.S. missile defense plans for Europe and will urge Russia to drop its objections to the system.

The officials say a communique which is due to be adopted, the 26-nation Western military alliance will recognize the protection the system will give to Europe from long-range ballistic missile threats, particularly from the Middle East. Russia fiercely opposes the plan, which would be deployed in the Czech Republic and Poland.

The decision to exclude Ukraine and Georgia was a sour outcome for Bush at his final NATO summit as he sought to polish his foreign policy legacy. Instead, he wound up sidetracked by opposition and splits among European allies. It was a result that was foreshadowed by public statements from France and Germany but Bush nevertheless put his prestige on the line and even made a stop in Ukraine on Monday to argue his case.

"We are convinced that it is too early to grant both states the (pre-membership) status," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said as she arrived in Bucharest for the summit. It only takes one NATO member to block a decision, because policy-making is reached by consensus.

Long discussions
The summit's opening dinner ran two hours longer than scheduled as the discussion went around the table, with each leader making his or her case. The White House expressed confidence that NATO would give a strong statement of support for its mission in Afghanistan and that a number of countries would pledge additional troops.

Bush, going into the talks, said he was "optimistic that this is going to be a very successful summit."

Diplomats said the alliance would offer a statement saying NATO's door will remain open if Ukraine and Georgia move ahead with political and military reforms and build support for NATO among their citizens.

Afghanistan loomed as the summit's No. 1 topic, a point of contention between some Europeans who see the NATO mission as largely a humanitarian effort and the Bush administration and others who see it as a central front in the fight against terrorism.

Canada had threatened to pull its troops from the front lines in southern Afghanistan unless other allies sent an additional 1,000 combat troops to help.

NATO has about 47,000 troops in Afghanistan, but commanders are pleading for more troops in the south, where Taliban insurgents are wreaking the most havoc. The United States supplies the largest contingent, about 14,000 for NATO, plus the United States has 13,000 operating separately in eastern Afghanistan hunting terrorists and training Afghan forces.

"We expect our NATO allies to shoulder the burden necessary to succeed" in Afghanistan, Bush said a midday news conference with Romania President Traian Basescu on a Black Sea beach.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has offered a battalion — normally about 700 to 800 troops — for the volatile eastern region, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said, reporting on the dinner. That would free up U.S. troops to move south. Appathurai said the offers on the opening day of the summit would meet Canada's demands.

Additional troops
To make up for other allies, Bush has pledged to send an additional 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan. The White House on Wednesday said the actual number would be 3,500.

Bush said the endorsement of U.S. missile-shield plan would "assure ... the people within NATO that there would be defenses available to prevent a Middle Eastern nation, for example, from launching a strike which could harm our security."

The U.S. worries most that Iran could someday launch such as missile.

Bush plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday in the resort city of Sochi, the last such session of their presidencies. Bush is also to meet with Putin's hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev.

The White House is holding out hopes of an agreement easing Russia's opposition to a missile shield.

Bush said Putin should not fear NATO, but rather should welcome the alliance because it "is a group of nations dedicated to peace."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23911149

Bush seeks to salvage foreign policy legacy
Iraq war, lame-duck status could make for tough NATO, Putin summits

updated 1:43 p.m. ET, Mon., March. 31, 2008
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush left on Monday for his farewell NATO summit and a final heads-of-state meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin as he tries to salvage a foreign policy legacy frayed by the Iraq war.

Seeking to reassert himself on the world stage in the twilight of his term, Bush will press NATO for more troops in Afghanistan, try to keep up momentum in the alliance's eastward expansion and attempt to ease strains with Russia.

But with Bush even more unpopular overseas than at home, he could have a hard time swaying world leaders at this week's Bucharest summit as they look to whomever will succeed him in January 2009.

"Many of them are looking forward now to the next president in Washington and are already thinking about what the 2009 summit will bring," said Julianne Smith, a Europe analyst at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Lame-duck status will not be Bush's only obstacle as he ventures abroad for the first in a series of international conferences marking his final year in office.

Overhanging his travels will be the 5-year-old Iraq war, which has damaged America's credibility with friends and foes alike. The latest spike in fighting has increased doubts of further drawdowns of U.S. forces before Bush leaves office.

He will also be trailed by a financial crisis at home that has roiled global markets and sharpened criticism of his economic record, once seen as a bright spot of his legacy.

Reassurance for Ukraine?
Bush's first stop will be Ukraine, where he will try to reassure Kiev's reform-minded government over its aspirations for NATO membership but offer no firm guarantees.

European partners are wary of letting Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance because of opposition from Moscow, which sees it as encroachment on the former Soviet sphere of influence.

Bush backs their bids for a roadmap for membership but may not have enough clout to overcome French and German misgivings at the April 2-4 summit in Bucharest.

Another source of friction is NATO's role in the war in Afghanistan, which has led to transatlantic finger-pointing.

Bush wants a greater commitment from NATO partners reluctant to send troops to areas of heavy combat against a resurgent Taliban. A French offer of more forces has helped ease the dispute but it remains unresolved.

Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Ukraine on Monday, said it was "pretty clear" the NATO summit would produce a strong statement about Afghanistan.

"All of us need to do more in Afghanistan, and I think you're going to see countries coming up and doing more," Hadley said. He declined to say which countries would be doing more, saying the leaders should explain their own decisions.

Bush will share the summit spotlight with Putin, an unusual guest of the Western alliance. How the two leaders interact may signal whether the West's relations with Russia will improve or deteriorate further.

U.S.-Russian missile shield
Afterward, Bush will fly to Russia for a final round of one-on-one talks with Putin before he steps down as Russian president in May.

The visit to Putin's Black Sea villa in Sochi is aimed at using their personal chemistry to repair relations strained over missile defense, Kosovo independence and NATO expansion.

There has been speculation the two leaders will try to seal a compromise on a planned U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe that Russia sees as a threat but which Washington insists is to deter countries like Iran that it considers "rogue states."

Hadley said Bush and Putin might resolve some differences over missile defense as they work on a "strategic framework" for U.S.-Russian relations to bequeath to their successors.

"This is a complicated relationship," he said. There were areas in which the two sides were trying to increase cooperation but also "areas where we disagree and we're trying to manage those disagreements. That's the framework in which we are moving forward."

The talks could help Bush gauge how much power Putin will wield behind the scenes after Dmitry Medvedev, his protege, takes over as president and Putin becomes prime minister.

Bush famously said after his first meeting with Putin in 2001 that he trusted him after gaining a "sense of his soul."

Critics say Bush was naive to believe Putin was committed to lasting democratic reform. Aides acknowledge Bush has become more realistic about Putin, who has grown more strident in his criticism of U.S. policies and more assertive of the former superpower's place in world affairs.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23882904/

Pat Buchanan had some observations on this expansion: Since NATO allies agree to defending each other do we really want to extend those conditions into areas with volatility we don't understand very well? If violence flairs up between Ukraine and Russia do we really want to be committed to stepping in? Gorbachev was turned out of office because the Russians felt he had lost too much territory. I could see how they might become alarmed at a growing bloc of countries which could conceivably oppose them.

A Hard Look at NATO is Long Overdue: www.thenewamerican.com/node/7100

Bush wants to take on Russia but cant do it alone.. he needs NATO .. if Ukraine and Georgia becomes a member and Russia attacks... NATO would be forced to come to their aid... thats why Bush is pushing this expansionism

Never in the history of this Nation has one corrupt individual done so much damage to this country and in such a short time it should scare the hell out of every single American