Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at the NATO summit in
Bucharest, Romania
on Thursday and managed to score a major diplomatic victory, as the Alliance leaders backed the membership bids of Ukraine and Georgia even before he arrived.
Putin previously warned the military alliance against moving
to bring Ukraine and Georgia aboard and he threatened that Russia might point its nuclear missiles at Ukraine if it joins NATO and takes part of a U.S. missile
system. He proved his strength as a president, successfully scurrying the NATO membership
bids of the former integral parts of the Soviet Onion.
“Clearly Putin is victorious,” Russian political analyst Sergei
Karaganov said, quoted by the Associated Press. “He has changed the tone of
relations between Russia
and the West,” he added.
NATO allies promised Ukraine
and Georgia they would invite
them to join the alliance at some point in the future, claiming Moscow should have no influence
on membership decisions. “We agreed today that these countries will become
members of NATO,”
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news
conference, Reuters reports.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko named the Alliance move historic, claiming, “This is our victory,”
while thousands of protesters gathered in Ukraine to criticize the potentiality
of NATO membership. Public support for NATO hardly reaches 30 percent in the country.
Macedonia
was told an invitation could be launched as soon as a “mutually acceptable
solution” between Greece and
Macedonia
to the name problem was found. Greece
is objecting to use of the name Macedonia,
as this is the name of one of Greece’s
provinces.
U.S. President George W. Bush did not comment his failure at
his farewell summit but mentioned that the Alliance must keep the door opened to expansion.
“NATO's door must remain open to other nations in Europe
that share our love for liberty,” he said in a statement.
According to a spokesman, the Alliance
and Russia signed a land
transit pact in order to allow NATO to use Russian land to deliver supplies to
its troops in Afghanistan.
