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| THE STAKES OF THE NATO SUMMIT 31/03/2008 |
| (2008-03-31) |
| Last updated: 2008-04-01 10:21 EET |
It would be interesting to know how the former Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, killed in December 1989, would have reacted, had he known that the huge palace in downtown Bucharest, built at his command, would be hosting these days the largest summit in the history of the North Atlantic Alliance, an organisation which he assimilated with aggressive imperialism. The summit will be attended by 3000 delegates and 3500 journalists, who will be accommodated by less than a third of the whole building, the second largest one after the Pentagon. It covers 330 000 square meters and has 1000 rooms.
But that is less important. What really matters is the summit’s agenda which is topped by such issues as: NATO enlargement and NATO operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo. In parallel there will be high level meetings of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, of the NATO-Ukraine committee, and of the NATO-Russia council, which will be attended by Russian president, Vladimir Putin. It’s already a certainty that enlargement will target Albania, Croatia and probably Macedonia if Greece renounces its objections regarding the name of that country. But the Alliance is dangerously divided, only one day ahead of the summit, over the prospects of Ukraine’s and Georgia’s accession.
A group of countries whose spokeswoman is German chancellor, Angela Merkel, opposes the accession of the two former Soviet states, while another group led by American President George W Bush is in favour of the two states’ accession. And Romania belongs to the latter group. Russian foreign minister, Serghei Lavrov, reiterated Moscow’s concern for Ukraine’s and Georgia’s NATO accession, saying that this would be an act of imprudence given that most Ukrainians are opposed to the process and the pro-Russian break away Georgian territories of Abhazia and South Osetia, will not hear of this prospect at all. However Georgian president Mihail Saakasvili said that barring the two countries’ way to the Alliance would be tantamount to giving Russia the right to veto.
Saakasvili added that his country would act upon the request of Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, who will also be present in Bucharest at the summit, to increase the foreign military build-up in order to ensure the security of his country. Increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan is another issue on which no consensus has been reached between the NATO countries. The big number of heads of state and government who will attend the summit has led to exceptional security measures. More than 23 000 policemen, gendarmes, guard and protection and secret services agents and another 4000 military for air and naval surveillance have been mobilized.
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2025-04-03
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