The NATO summit in Bucharest will prove that the member states are dedicated to the NATO enlargement as well as Afghanistan and Kosovo, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in an interview with the local Evenimentul Zilei daily.
The summit to be held in Bucharest this April "will be important for the relation between NATO and its partners," Scheffer was quoted as saying in the interview on Wednesday.
It is about more traditional partners, who will participate in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), especially in the 26+N meeting, all of them being NATO or non-NATO allies in Afghanistan, he added.
As for the enlargement of NATO by accepting three new members, Albania, Macedonia and Croatia, and "the open-door policy" that Russia considers to be "inherited from the Cold War period," the NATO chief said the alliance "disagrees" with such a consideration.
Scheffer also said that the U.S. plans to deploy anti-missile defence systems in former Soviet satellites will "definitely be on the agenda."
He said the NATO allies agree "there is a threat posed by ballistic missiles" and if the U.S. plans become reality, they will have an impact on NATO because the shields will not cover the entire Europe.
Source: Xinhua
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