Bush reaffirms support for Ukraine, Georgia joining NATO
'There's no trade-offs. Period,' Bush says in Kiev, insisting that he won't drop his backing of the nations' bid to join NATO in exchange for Russia dropping its opposition to a missile shield.
KIEV, Ukraine -- President Bush declared today that he would not trade his support for bringing Ukraine and Georgia into NATO in exchange for Russia dropping its opposition to a U.S. missile defense network in Central Europe.
"There's no trade-offs. Period," Bush said, stating that it was a "misperception" that he was willing to make such a bargain.
The president said he delivered that message to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in a recent telephone call, telling his counterpart that Russia had "nothing to fear" if the alliance eventually extends a welcome to the two countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.
The question of whether to take the initial steps that could lead to Ukraine and Georgia joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has become a dominant issue in the days leading up to an alliance summit, beginning Wednesday evening in Bucharest, which Bush is attending.
Similarly, the future of the missile defense system, which the United States wants to build in Poland and the Czech Republic as a shield against warheads launched from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East, is likely to be a central topic when Bush visits with Putin in Sochi, Russia this weekend. The meeting is likely to be their final face-to-face conference before Putin leaves the presidency on May 7.
Putin and other Russian officials have objected that the system, set close to Russia's borders in former communist-bloc nations, would threaten Russian rockets.
For Bush, the Bucharest summit provides an opportunity to draw attention to the changes that have taken place in the alliance since his presidency began in 2001, its reach covering a wide swath of Eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea that during the Cold War was part of the Warsaw Pact.
In a speech he is scheduled to give Wednesday, he will call attention to this expansion, as well as NATO's missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Sudan, and its potential roles in the new century, among them missile defense and cyber-security, said Gordon D. Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
Bush spoke today at a news conference in Kiev with Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko, who has been outspoken in his own country in favor of joining NATO. Yushchenko acknowledged that he did not yet have the support of a majority of his citizens.
