The NATO summit at Bucharest, Romania is turning out to be a stormy one with battle-lines drawn between the US and Britain on the one hand with France and Germany on the other side. Bush has had problems with these two countries over Afghanistan. US calls for more German troops to fight the resurgent Taliban have fallen on deaf years.
Sarkozy has agreed to send more French soldiers to Afghanistan, but wants France to be part of the NATO military command, which it has stayed out of for 40 years. The idea is to have a greater say in NATO decision making and to end the US-Britain hegemony. Both these countries have not received this proposal warmly.
But the biggest controversial issue is to invite Georgia and Ukraine into the military organization. Russia is opposing this move tooth-and-nail. It sees this as further encirclement of itself by the west after Bush’s idea of installing radars and an anti-missile shield in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Germany and France too are not in favour of such a move.
Firstly they feel these nations are not stable enough to be admitted into NATO. Also they feel it is not wise to enrage Russia now. Russia’s Gazprom provides Western Europe with most of its gas needs. France and Germany feel Ukraine and Georgia are not worth going against Russia. Germany in particular feels that the idea of their inclusion into NATO should have been preceded by proper spadework diplomacy to calm Russian alarm.
But Bush with his ‘bang-bang’ approach has upset the Europeans. He is very sure that inviting Ukraine and Georgia into NATO is a great idea and to hell with Russian worries! Moreover the prospect of Croatia and Albania joining NATO has angered Russia. It feels the west is creeping up to it from all sides.
Source: Independent, IHT
