Bucharest (Romania): NATO Summit Update – Mar 31, 2008

Mar 31, 2008 (Associated Press, REUTERS)

NATO, pushing 60, will grapple with new and old threats at summit – AP… Romania hopes for regional prominence after NATO summit – REUTERS


NATO, pushing 60, will grapple with new and old threats at summit

In Afghanistan, it is battling al-Qaida and Taliban. In newly independent Kosovo, it's up against Serbian protesters armed with firebombs and grenades. And behind the scenes, it is helping to quell the violence in Iraq and to track down suspected war criminals in Bosnia – International Herald Tribune reads as citing AP.

NATO, its chief insists, has no ambitions to become a "global policeman." But the military alliance born of the Cold War continues to grow and face new challenges. At a summit Wednesday through Friday in Romania, President Bush and the leaders of NATO's other 25 countries will discuss how to mobilize more troops to turn the tide in Afghanistan, and whether to get bigger and tougher at the risk of alienating Russia.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which turns 60 next year, faces a mid-life crisis as it debates whether a new vision and direction are needed in a world transformed since the Cold War that was the alliance's original raison d'être.

Its membership has nearly doubled since the Berlin Wall came down, and the venue of the summit — the cavernous "People's House" in Bucharest built by Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania's last communist dictator — is a powerful symbol of a world upended.

Yet echoes of the Cold War persist in NATO's confrontation with Russia.

Already, with nine former Soviet bloc countries in its ranks, NATO abuts some of Russia's borders and could soon reach others as Bush and other NATO members seek to bring Georgia and Ukraine aboard, much to the Kremlin's dismay.

But some NATO members — notably France and Germany — are uneasy about provoking Russia, which fiercely opposes the eastward expansion of an alliance it denounces as a Cold War relic.


Romania hopes for regional prominence after NATO summit – REUTERS

BUCHAREST - Once a laggard among former Soviet allies in joining the European Union and NATO, Romania hopes the military alliance's summit in Bucharest this week will earn the Black Sea state a bigger role in southeastern Europe -- Justyna Pawlak reports for REUTERS.

Romanian President Traian Basescu has pushed hard for the 26-member alliance to turn its attention to security issues around the Black Sea and in the Balkans, supporting membership aspirations of countries in the region.

So far, Romania's efforts to become a mouthpiece for the region have produced lackluster results. It has become isolated in its staunch backing for Serbia and it has failed to persuade neighboring Moldova to stay on a straight pro-western track.

But diplomats say NATO's decision to hold this year's summit, the alliance's biggest ever, in Bucharest is a sign that Romania has succeeded in drawing the focus of its policies towards security issues in its neighborhood.



Associated Press and REUTERS