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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 31/03-6/04/2008 |
| (2008-04-04) |
| Last updated: 2008-04-08 15:28 EET |
This week Bucharest has been the host of the largest summit in the history of the North Atlantic Organisation, which was attended by 3000 officials from 60 countries, members of the Alliance, partner states and important international organisations. The agenda of the summit included important, even sensitive issues such as: NATO enlargement, granting the status of participant in the Membership Action Plan to Ukraine and Georgia, the American anti-missile defence shield and the situation in Afghanistan. Croatia and Albania received the invitation to become NATO members, unlike Macedonia that was put on stand-by because of Greece's veto. The reason- their failure to solve an old dispute between the two countries over the official name of this former Yugoslav republic. Nevertheless, once Macedonia has solved this issue, it can join the Alliance immediately. The NATO Council decided to intensify dialogue with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro and to let the door open to Serbia.
Ukraine and Georgia were not included in the pre-accession plan for NATO accession. The Allies considered that they did not comply, for the time being, with the conditions allowing them to receive the Membership Action Plan. However Ukrainian and Georgian officials appreciated the Alliance's decision as a success, since the text of the declaration explicitly mentions that the two countries will join the Alliance when they have met the required conditions.
The NATO leaders approved the idea to locate the American anti-missile defence shield in Europe and will later look into the possibility of creating another shield that should cover those allied states in the southern flank of the Alliance that are not protected by the American shield, Romania included.
 US President George W Bush and his Romanian counterpart, Traian Basescu, on Wednesday met in the Black Sea resort of Neptun, for a bilateral meeting. At the end of his speech, Bush referred to the changes that took place in Romania after the fall of the Communist regime.
In turn, President Basescu referred to the fact that the US understood Romania's priorities, and especially the priorities of the region and the similarity of Bucharest's and Washington's political visions.
“I would like to underscore the similar way of approaching issues related to the region Romania is part of. Our approaches are aimed, firstly, at Romania's security and also the region's security, and we are happy that the US, although far away from this region, have understood our concerns, our priorities and those of the region. I assure you that Romania will remain a country that complies with its all commitments made both to NATO and the EU, and related to the partnership and bilateral relation with the US. “
The two presidents also approached the sensitive issue of the visa waiver for the Romanian citizens who want to travel to the US.
 Another top issue on the NATO summit agenda was the situation in Afghanistan. NATO leaders have confirmed the steady, common, long-term commitment to this country, specifying that in the future, the NATO mission will be directed towards the reconstruction process, while the present predominant military effort will turn into a basically civil effort, meant to assist the Afghans. In turn UN secretary general Ban-Ki-Moon has promised the United Nations will support the authorities in Kabul until they are able to take over. In terms of beefing up foreign troops stationed in that country, France confirmed the deployment of an additional 700 strong contingent, while the United States said they would send about 3 thousand more military. Canada has in turn announced it renounced to pull out its troops from Afghanistan. Romania has also expressed its readiness to add more troops to the contingent it has in that country, which is totalling 650 military. After years of negotiations, Moscow has given the green light for the non-military shipments destined to the ISAF to transit its territory.
Friday, the last day of the NATO summit, has been devoted to the relations with Kiev, and Moscow, respectively. NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, has reiterated the fact that Ukraine will surely become a NATO member, although it hasn’t been included in the pre-accession programme. President Yushcenko hailed the clear message conveyed by the Alliance underlining that it represents a recognition of Kiev’s contribution to European and international security. As far as Russia is concerned, Scheffer said the discussions were open and direct , even when the parties involved voiced different opinions on issues such as Kosovo, NATO enlargement or the anti-missile shield. For the first time since this forum was founded in 2002 president Vladimir Putin attended it. The Russian official reiterated Moscow’s readiness to cooperate with NATO in certain fields, in spite of some pending problems. Putin said Russia is ready to make a compromise on its return in the Conventional Forces Treaty, but the Alliance also has to make concessions.
April the 4th has brought to Romania, and not only, a surprise - an unscheduled meeting between the Romanian president Traian Basescu and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who is the first Kremlin leader to have visited Romania since 1990. Although in the last days of his term in office and in spite of sour bilateral relations, Putin has invited the Romanian president to pay a visit to Moscow. He recollected that bilateral economic relations have been invigorated after Basescu’s visit to Russia in 2005. According to Putin, the volume of two-way trade reached 5 billion dollars. In an interview to Russian daily Izvestia, the Romanian president said the bilateral relations between the two states will know ‘a dynamic development’. ‘Romania is positive that Moscow is a major player on the international stage’, Basescu went on to say, while peace and security cannot be assured in the absence of a tight partnership with the Russian Federation.
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