German Government: Too Soon For Ukraine, Georgia NATO Bids
Monday December 1st, 2008 / 17h28
BERLIN (AFP)--Germany said Monday too little progress had been made to even start the ball rolling on the bids by Georgia and Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, while suggesting Russia should also be consulted on the matter. NATO foreign ministers are meeting this week in Brussels, almost four months after Russia's war with Georgia, to review the candidacies of the two former Soviet republics who want to join the western military alliance. The Bush administration has been pushing their candidacies, although U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week it was "very clear" they weren't ready for immediate membership. "A great many countries think that Georgia and Ukraine have not made enough progress to even be considered for the Membership Action Plan," a trial period prior to being allowed into the western alliance, deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters. He cited reservations expressed by NATO leaders at a summit in Bucharest in April that the two countries lacked the internal stability and broad popular support for joining the alliance that membership would require. He noted what he called NATO's agreement to consult with Moscow on the accession of new members. "The steps toward expansion of NATO - this was discussed in the past and we made clear in Bucharest that these steps would also made in the future, that these would indeed be coordinated with Russia. However there is no right of veto on NATO expansion for other actors," he said. Russia has been strongly critical of bids by Ukraine and Georgia to join the western alliance. U.S. talk of fast-tracking their candidacies by bypassing the MAP transition period "is a suggestion which must be viewed with great prudence," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner said at the regular government news conference. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Rice have expressed "different opinions" in telephone talks on the matter, Ploetner said. While the U.S. secretary of state said there doesn't need to be any discussion at the foreign ministers meeting of approving MAP for Georgia and Ukraine, she said the U.S. still seeks to intensify NATO cooperation with the countries. Some European NATO members fear her statement indicates Washington is looking for a potential new platform to help prise open NATO's door for Georgia and Ukraine. In an interview published Monday by the Handelsblatt newspaper, Steinmeier said while Ukraine and Georgia must be offered the prospect of NATO membership, the time wasn't ripe for change. Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=cyyj%2Fj9l%2Faz7taM%2FBIG0ZQ%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
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