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NATO Makes Everybody Happy
The summit of NATO foreign ministers ended yesterday in Brussels. For Russia, the main result of the meeting was that Ukraine and Georgia did not receive membership action plans and the decision was made to renew relations with Russia. NATO General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called Russia a key player in the international arena and said the Russia-NATO Council made it possible to work together on common problems, such as Afghanistan. Scheffer added that the renewal of contacts does not mean that NATO approves of Russia’s actions in the August war in the Caucasus or that it discounts Russia’s threats to point missiles at NATO member countries.
Scheffer also repeated assurances made in Bucharest to the Ukrainian delegation that that country would become a member of the alliance. “I think the level of cooperation between Ukraine and NATO will be higher than before,” Ukrainian Minister Petr Krupko told Kommersant. Party of the Regions leader Viktor Yanukovich thanked NATO for its “respect for the choice of the Ukrainian People.” Olga Gerasimyuk, a member of the Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense faction, stated that “fulfilling the yearlong action plan is the same as fulfilling the membership action plan, and we are doing it.”
Georgian Prime Minister Grigol Mgaloblishvili told a session of the government in Tbilisi yesterday that “the irreversible process of Georgian NATO membership” has started, calling the yearlong action plan a mechanism for joining the organization. Lasha Zhvania, chairman of the Georgian parliament’s international affairs committee, explained that “A yearlong action plan will be provided every year and its results reviewed at the annual NATO summit. We see the possibility that, after one of those reviews, the alliance will make the decision to invite Georgia into NATO without a membership action plan.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 04, 2008
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