NATO on Friday concluded its three-day summit with grave divisions on enlargement and progress on Afghanistan.
General view of the session on Ukraine at the NATO summit in Bucharest April 4, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) The NATO leaders could not reach a consensus on whether to grant Ukraine and Georgia NATO's membership action plan (MAP), a program that puts aspirant countries on the path toward full membership.
The snub is seen as a setback for U.S. President George W. Bush, who was the strongest advocate of pre-membership status for the two former Soviet republics.
Bush's National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said Thursday that Washington started to persuade major European allies some months ago. Bush in recent weeks intensified his efforts by exchanging views through telephone and secret video teleconferences with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he said.
Bush visited Ukraine on his way to Bucharest and pushed hard for MAP for Ukraine and Georgia.
European allies led by Germany and France, however, shot down Ukraine's and Georgia's applications. NATO leaders decided instead to leave the issue to a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in December 2008.
As an appeasement obviously pushed by Washington, NATO leaders promised that the two countries will ultimately join the alliance.
Bush suffered another setback when Macedonia was not invited to join NATO. Bush had long been advocating for invitations to all three Western Balkan countries -- Macedonia plus Croatia and Albania.
Greece vetoed Macedonia's invitation as Athens is not happy with Macedonia's official name -- the Republic of Macedonia. Greece insists that the name implies territorial ambitions for the northern Greek province which is also called Macedonia.
Bush said Thursday that he regretted the outcome and expressed the hope that the name dispute could be resolved as soon as possible.
On Afghanistan, however, NATO leaders were able to reach a consensus on the long-term nature of the issue and vowed to adopt a "comprehensive approach," which would combine military and civilian factors and invite the engagement of important international players such as the United Nations and the World Bank.
Sarkozy on Wednesday formally offered to send 800 troops to Afghanistan, breaking a months-old deadlock of the alliance.
The French troops will be deployed in the east of Afghanistan, freeing up American troops to move to the southern province of Kandahar.
The French and U.S. moves have satisfied Canada's conditions without which Ottawa would withdraw its troops in the southern Afghan province by early 2009.
The resolution of the thorny issue was a strong plus for the NATO summit.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force has 47,000troops in Afghanistan. But only four NATO allies -- the United States, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands -- are engaged in fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists in the south and east.
Without the removal of restrictions, Afghanistan is expected to remain a source of potential wrangles among the allies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was invited for the first time to a NATO summit for formal discussions.
As a sweetener, Moscow agreed to allow NATO's non-lethal goods to transit through Russian soil, an arrangement that can save a lot of money compared to airlifts.
NATO and Russia, however, remained divided on key issues such as the planned U.S. missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) and NATO's enlargement.
Putin said his country is willing to enhance practical cooperation with NATO on the condition that NATO takes into account Russia's security concerns.
Source: Xinhua
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