Bush to push for Georgia's entry into NATO
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush on Wednesday expressed his support for the former Soviet republic of Georgia's bid to join NATO at the alliance's upcoming early April summit.
"I believe that NATO benefits with a Georgia membership, I believe that Georgia benefits from being a part of NATO and I told the president that's the message I'd be taking to Bucharest soon," said Bush after meeting at the White House with Georgia's pro-western president, Mikheil Saakashvili.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization members are scheduled to gather for an April 2-4 summit in Bucharest. Russia, uneasy with NATO's expansion into former Soviet satellite countries, is opposed to the move.
Georgia and Ukraine are hoping to get approval from the Western military alliance for its membership action plan (MAP), seen as signalling that a country is a formal applicant.
The 26 NATO members are split on whether to accept them or not.
Russia's ambassador at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Dmitri Rogozine, warned that any step by Georgia in that direction would encourage the secession of Abkhazia and south Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in conflicts in the early 1990s.
Both have called for international recognition of their self-declared independence, citing Kosovo's move to break away from Serbia as a precedent, a move recognised by several European NATO nations and the United States. While independent, Abkhazia and south Ossetia receive strong Russian support.
The "MAP application of course, as the president full well knows, is not membership," Bush said. "MAP is a process that will enable NATO members to be comfortable with a country eventually joining."
Saakashvili said later at a forum of the Washington-based Atlantic Council that Bush "spoke out very powerfully in favour" of Georgia's membership.
This, he said, "is something that needs to be appreciated and supported."
Saakashvili noted that there was a "profound ideological debate inside NATO" about enlarging its membership but was confident of a decision favourable to Georgia.
The decision was not only critical to the United States and Georgia but also "very important" for Europe, he said.
Georgia regained independence as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
The country voiced ambitions to join NATO and other Western structures after the so-called Rose Revolution propelled Saakashvili to power in 2003.
The two leaders also "talked about the need for there to be peaceful resolutions of conflicts while recognizing the territorial integrity and sovereign borders of Georgia," Bush said.
