NATO divided on Georgia, Ukraine
Friday, 4 April 2008
BUCHAREST, Apr 3 (AP): France and Germany were poised Thursday to thwart a drive by President Bush to place the strategically important Black Sea states of Ukraine and Georgia on track for NATO membership at a tense alliance summit.
NATO officials also said the alliance decided not to invite Macedonia to join. Latvian President Valdis Zatlers said NATO leaders have agreed, however, to let the country join once it resolves a name dispute with Greece.
Greece has a northern province that is also called Macedonia and contends the former Yugoslav republic's insistence on being known as Macedonia implies a territorial claim.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are concerned about provoking a crisis with Moscow if NATO takes on the two former Soviet republics located on Russia's southwestern borders and across key east-west oil and gas routes.
"I would be happy to be proved wrong but I do not expect MAP for Georgia and Ukraine," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai, referring to the Membership Action Plan sought by the two former-Soviet republics.
All 26 allies must agree for the expansion plan to move forward and talks over dinner Wednesday failed to find a breakthrough.
Sarkozy confirmed Thursday that France will send a battalion and special forces to Afghanistan to join the NATO mission there. The reinforcements are expected to total up to 1,000 troops.
That will allow the American troops to move south to Kandahar province. Canada had threatened to pull out its 2,500 beleaguered soldiers there unless they got 1,000 reinforcements from another ally.
Sarkozy also told the NATO summit he will decide next year on France's return to the alliance's single integrated military command, over four decades since Gen. Charles de Gaulle pulled out.
Both moves are a sign of Sarkozy's policy of drawing closer to the U.S.-led NATO alliance, although his speech also stressed France's desire to build up the defense role of the European Union.
Appathurai also said the allies were close to agreement on developing a short range anti-missile shield to complement the strategic defense shield being developed by the United States.
Without an agreement to invite the Ukraine and Georgia, officials said the alliance would draw up a text offering the prospect of a later membership plan and encouraging them to continue political and military reforms to prepare for joining, but delaying the opening of the formal membership process.
NATO officials also said the alliance decided not to invite Macedonia to join. Latvian President Valdis Zatlers said NATO leaders have agreed, however, to let the country join once it resolves a name dispute with Greece.
Greece has a northern province that is also called Macedonia and contends the former Yugoslav republic's insistence on being known as Macedonia implies a territorial claim.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are concerned about provoking a crisis with Moscow if NATO takes on the two former Soviet republics located on Russia's southwestern borders and across key east-west oil and gas routes.
"I would be happy to be proved wrong but I do not expect MAP for Georgia and Ukraine," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai, referring to the Membership Action Plan sought by the two former-Soviet republics.
All 26 allies must agree for the expansion plan to move forward and talks over dinner Wednesday failed to find a breakthrough.
Sarkozy confirmed Thursday that France will send a battalion and special forces to Afghanistan to join the NATO mission there. The reinforcements are expected to total up to 1,000 troops.
That will allow the American troops to move south to Kandahar province. Canada had threatened to pull out its 2,500 beleaguered soldiers there unless they got 1,000 reinforcements from another ally.
Sarkozy also told the NATO summit he will decide next year on France's return to the alliance's single integrated military command, over four decades since Gen. Charles de Gaulle pulled out.
Both moves are a sign of Sarkozy's policy of drawing closer to the U.S.-led NATO alliance, although his speech also stressed France's desire to build up the defense role of the European Union.
Appathurai also said the allies were close to agreement on developing a short range anti-missile shield to complement the strategic defense shield being developed by the United States.
Without an agreement to invite the Ukraine and Georgia, officials said the alliance would draw up a text offering the prospect of a later membership plan and encouraging them to continue political and military reforms to prepare for joining, but delaying the opening of the formal membership process.