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NATO weighs eastward expansion

Czech officials participate in international dialogue at summit

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 9th, 2008 issue

Bucharest, ROMANIA
The colossal compound in the heart of the Romanian capital formerly known as the People’s Palace is all-encompassing. Ushers, caterers, police guards, 3,500 journalists and government delegations from 53 countries — the structure absorbs them all with ease. Commissioned in the 1980s by notorious dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to house the state’s communist bureaucracy, it has since been renamed Parliament Palace and peopled by the governing organs of Romania’s budding democracy.
At first, it seems ironic that what was once an icon of authoritarian power would host a conference of NATO, the global harbinger of democratic security. Yet considering Romania’s recently acquired EU status and enthusiastic NATO member reputation, the setting becomes symbolic of the 2008 summit’s principal issue: NATO’s eastward fixation.
“Romania is one of NATO’s newest members, a country that also marks the alliance’s eastern border,” said Romanian President Traian Basescu in his welcoming statement. “In this respect, we believe Bucharest is the fitting place to mark the enlargement of NATO.”
This year’s race for NATO accession featured five countries: Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Georgia and Ukraine. Aside from their communist pasts, these nations are united by historic instability in their respective regions. Given the recent declaration of independence by the Serbian region of Kosovo — which threatens to revive conflict in the area — the incorporation of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia into NATO was considered essential to Balkan stability.
While Albania and Croatia were easily invited to join the NATO club, the application of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM, was more problematic. Caught in a 17-year dispute over its name — believed by Greece to indicate Macedonia’s designs to claim a northern Greek province also called Macedonia — the country’s invitation was vetoed by the Greek delegation.
Upon hearing the news, the Macedonian delegation hastily left the summit, invoking a duty to be home with its people.
Czech leaders attending the conference, who consider Balkan stability one of its top diplomatic priorities, appeared hopeful that Macedonia’s acceptance was nevertheless imminent.
“[FYROM’s] invitation will be formulated as soon as the question regarding this country’s name is resolved,” President Václav Klaus told journalists after the decision was announced.
Though linked to a bilateral dispute, the postponement of Macedonia’s invitation signifies the failure of U.S. President George W. Bush’s goals to secure the Balkans through NATO expansion, said former Czech Foreign Affairs Minister Jiří Dienstbier.
The independence of Kosovo, a region where Albanians comprise the ethnic majority, portends a revitalization of the secessionist sentiments of Albanian majorities throughout the Balkans, especially in Macedonia, where they make up one-fourth of the population. Failing to incorporate the country into NATO therefore threatens the fragile peace of the entire region, where “Macedonia is in the greatest danger,” Dienstbier said.
Roadblocks
While Macedonian leaders expected an invitation, Georgian and Ukrainian invitees had only hoped for approval of their Membership Accession Plan (MAP). However, they too were disappointed.
Promoted by Bush, Ukraine and Georgia’s accession was opposed by major NATO players including Germany and France, who warned this expansion would anger Moscow. Talks with Georgia and Ukraine were thus postponed until December, when NATO foreign ministers will “assess their progress,” NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told journalists.
Addressing reporters, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his objections to Georgia and Ukraine’s potential accession, which would bring NATO to Russia’s borders. Putin also made assurances that a new Cold War was not in the interest of any world power, but questioned the purpose of the alliance’s existence. “NATO was created when there was an author of evil in the Soviet Union,” he said. “Today, there is no Soviet bloc … yet NATO still exists.”
In the end, Scheffer admitted that a conclusion to the “contentious issues” of eastward expansion and plans to extend Europe’s anti-ballistic missile system to the Czech Republic and Poland had not been reached.
By leaving crucial questions unanswered, the conclusion of the NATO summit therefore left “no cause for celebration,” Dienstbier said.
He added that the alliance, with its divided views on eastward expansion, revealed internal conflicts in Georgia and the Ukraine, where talks of NATO accession widened ethnic fissures.
In Ukraine, a majority of the population resists NATO accession due to a rift between the country’s pro-Western, Ukrainian-speaking contingent in the west and a Russian-speaking opposition in the east. In Georgia, NATO membership may fuel tensions in breakaway regions in the South Caucasus.
“The moment Georgia joins NATO, [these regions] will at once declare independence and attach themselves to Russia,” Dienstbier said. “Everyone except for Bush seems to know this. … I have no idea what this eastward expansion is supposed to achieve.”

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


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