Mar 16, 2008 (Romania Report & sources)
Bush to Attend NATO Summit in Romania… Canada Votes to Extend Afghan Mission…
Bush to Attend NATO Summit in Romania
WASHINGTON — President Bush will make stops in the Ukraine and Croatia next month during his trip to Romania to attend the NATO summit where Afghanistan and expansion of the alliance will top the agenda, AP announced on Friday.
"NATO's ongoing transformation and enlargement has been a historic success in bolstering the alliance, promoting peace and security, and advancing freedom and democracy in central and eastern Europe," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
The president and first lady Laura Bush's visit to the three countries will "underscore the importance of fostering a Europe whole, free and at peace," Perino said.
On April 1, the president will travel to Kyiv, Ukraine, to meet with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The two Ukrainian leaders, along with Ukraine's parliament speaker, have signed a formal request asking NATO to consider Ukraine's bid for a Membership Action Plan.
On April 2-4, Bush will be in Bucharest, Romania, for the NATO summit. In addition to summit events, Bush will have bilateral meetings with leaders of Romania and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. The Bushes then will travel to Croatia. Croatia, Macedonia and Albania are hoping to be invited to join NATO at the summit.
Canada Votes to Extend Afghan Mission
TORONTO (AP) — Parliament voted Thursday to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan to 2011, provided NATO supplies more troops and equipment to back up its forces in the volatile south.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has been under growing pressure to withdraw Canada's 2,500 troops as the death toll has mounted, now at 80 Canadian soldiers and a diplomat. The mission was set to expire in February 2009.
But the minority Conservative government and opposition Liberals agreed last month to vote together on the motion, which passed 198-77. Liberals backed the extension after Harper promised the mission would increase its focus on training and reconstruction.
Conservatives had declared the motion a confidence vote, which would have triggered early elections if it failed.
U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins applauded the vote and said the NATO ultimatum is appropriate.
The extension of the mission is conditional on NATO providing 1,000 troops, helicopters and unmanned surveillance aircraft to back up forces in southern Kandahar province, a former Taliban stronghold.
Russia’s bid to divert NATO's agenda
For the first time in the 60-year history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Russia will attend the alliance's summit meeting on April 2-4 in Bucharest, Romania.
It is clear that NATO will defer to a future date any decision to put Ukraine and Georgia on its Membership Action Plan. This means effectively that the two former Soviet republics cannot draw closer to NATO for another year at the very least, which in turn implies that the earliest the two countries can realize their membership claim would be in a four-year timeframe.
That is a huge gesture by NATO to Moscow's sensitivities. Conceivably, it clears the decks for what could prove to be a turning point in Russia-NATO relations. Russia may be about to join hands with NATO in Afghanistan. A clearer picture will emerge out of the intensive consultations of the foreign and defence ministers of Russia and the United States within the so-called "2+2" format due to take place in Moscow from Monday through Tuesday next week. From the guarded comments by both sides and the flurry of US diplomatic activity, it appears highly probable that Russia is being brought into the solution of the Afghanistan problem, along with NATO.
According to the Russian newspaper ‘Kommersant’ and the ‘Financial Times of London’, the initiative came from Russia when its new ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin - former Russian politician with a controversial record as a staunch Russian nationalist who routinely berated the West - suggested a strong interest in this area at a recent meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at Brussels. The plan involves Russia providing a land corridor for NATO to transport its goods - "non-military materials" - destined for the mission in Afghanistan. Intensive talks have been going on since then over a framework agreement.
Romania Report & sources
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