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BUCHAREST: NATO’s European members were set Thursday to rebuff US
efforts to bring Ukraine and Georgia into the fold, a move that
would ease Russian concerns about the alliance closing in on its
borders.
Georgia and Ukraine’s hopes of joining
NATO’s Membership Action Plan (MAP), which grooms aspiring
European nations for entry, have wilted significantly. Despite
strong US support, France and Germany lead a bloc who fears the move
might destabilize an already volatile region on the southern flank
of Russia.
“We have reached the conclusion that it is too
early to give both countries MAP status,” said German Chancellor
Angela Merkel.
“For the moment, I do not expect a membership
action plan for Georgia and Ukraine here at Bucharest,” chief NATO
spokesman James Appathurai said after a working dinner late
Wednesday.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos
said his country was working with Norway and a few others to try to
find a consensus, but that questions remained over the “timing and
the manner” to accept the two.
NATO is the world’s biggest military alliance
and its 26 member nations must unanimously agree for Georgia and
Ukraine to join the fold.
Ukraine’s public does not share the enthusiasm
of their leaders to join MAP. A January survey showed that only one
in three people approve that NATO nations fear any such step would
not pass muster at the parliament in Kiev.
So far as Georgia is concerned, many countries
have expressed deep concern about the state of emergency it imposed
in December to end opposition protests.
Tblisi’s simmering tensions with separatist
Abkhazia and South Ossetia have yet to be settled.
Meanwhile, Albania and Croatia seem to be
assured of winning the much-coveted invitation to join, having met
NATO’s technical and considerably political criteria for
membership.
In addition, at least some in NATO are keen to
start relations with President-elect Dmitry Medvedev on a better
footing than they have been with outgoing Russian President Vladimir
Putin.
But the ambitions of Macedonia—the
southernmost of the former Yugoslav republics—have been challenged
by neighbor Greece in a dispute over its official name, and
officials held out little hope for a breakthrough.
“There is no consensus on this issue,” a
Greek foreign ministry spokesman said late Wednesday, and despite
more talks being scheduled added: “My feeling is that Greece
won’t be able to give its consent.”
The dispute could have deep implications for the
Balkans, given instability there since Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian
leaders declared independence from Serbia in February.
Macedonia’s government has been hanging by a
thread since an ethnic Albanian party left the coalition, and
parliament had agreed not to block the cabinet until this summit in
Bucharest, which ends on Friday.
NATO helped avert a civil war in Macedonia in
2001, sparked by tensions between Serbia and Kosovo, and NATO
Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has acknowledged that
membership for Macedonia would be important for stability.
-- AFP
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