(Recasts with Bush speech)
By Mark John and Paul Taylor
BUCHAREST, April 2 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush
set the stage for a clash at his last NATO summit on Wednesday
by pressing reluctant west European allies to set former Soviet
republics Georgia and Ukraine on a path to membership.
He also urged allies to follow the example of France and
host nation Romania in providing extra troops for NATO's battle
against Islamist insurgents in Afghanistan.
"If we do not defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan, we will
face them on our soil," he said in a keynote speech, hours
before leaders of the 26-nation defence alliance were to open a
three-day summit.
Bush said the West should reward democratic revolutions in
Ukraine and Georgia by giving both countries a prospect of
joining NATO, although Russia has opposed this.
"My country's position is clear -- NATO should welcome
Georgia and Ukraine into the Membership Action Plan," he said.
"The Cold War is over. Russia is not our enemy. We are
looking to a new security relationship with Russia," he said.
Looking ahead to a summit with Russian President Vladimir
Putin at the weekend, Bush said there could be an unprecedented
level of strategic cooperation with Moscow on missile defence
and arms control.
France and Germany, backed by several smaller countries,
have said neither Ukraine nor Georgia yet meets NATO's criteria
and the decision would be an unnecessary provocation to Moscow
just before President-elect Dmitry Medvedev takes office.
At stake is whether NATO pushes its European borders right
up to the frontiers of Russia, with the exception of Belarus, or
leaves a strategic buffer zone as the Kremlin wishes.
TOUGH TALK
Diplomats said the issue would be thrashed out at an opening
summit dinner, when Bush will meet French President Nicolas
Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and fellow leaders.
Since the decision requires unanimity, Washington would
probably have to settle for a "road map" to closer cooperation
with Ukraine and Georgia and a commitment to review the issue at
next year's 60th anniversary summit, they said.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was quoted
as saying NATO should not strain ties with Moscow beyond "the
limit of the manageable" by supporting their request for a
Membership Action Plan (MAP), a gateway to eventual membership.
Ukraine and Georgia would instead be offered "a whole range
of very practical and concrete steps to deepen ties" with NATO,
Steinmeier told the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper.
One senior NATO diplomat believed the prospect of agreement
on membership plans at the summit was already lost and expected
the United States to change tack and seek firm commitments that
the two should not have to wait too much longer.
"The real issue now is how hard the United States will try
to push for France and Germany to make a commitment to MAP (for
Ukraine and Georgia) in 2009," said the diplomat.
Another uncertain decision facing the summit leaders was
over Macedonia's candidacy for NATO membership. Greece has
threatened to veto Skopje's entry over an unresolved dispute
over the former Yugoslav republic's name.
Bush made clear Washington wanted Macedonia, along with
Croatia and Albania, to be invited to join this week. But the
diplomats said if Athens did not yield, leaders might have to
issue a conditional invitation to Skopje, to be ratified once
the name dispute was settled.
Some fear Macedonia's exclusion would plunge it into a new
political crisis, with repercussions for a region already on
tenterhooks over Kosovo's Feb. 17 secession from Serbia.
Diplomats have sketched a possible trade-off, in which
Moscow would accept U.S. plans to deploy its anti-missile
defence shield in central Europe and Washington would accept a
delay in the Georgian and Ukrainian NATO bids. U.S. officials
insist no such deal is on the table.
(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell, Matt Spetalnick,
Justyna Pawlak and Randall Palmer in Bucharest and Francois
Murphy in Paris; Editing by Timothy Heritage)
