April NATO Summit in the eyes of Union Parliamentarians

NATO summit which took place in the Romanian capital has become by far the largest forum of the North Atlantic alliance, yet not a sensational one except that Croatia and Albania got round the table while Macedonia felt insulted when Greece refused to recognize its name and the former left Bucharest.

NATO summit which took place in the Romanian capital has become by far the largest forum of the North Atlantic alliance, yet not a sensational one except that Croatia and Albania got round the table while Macedonia felt insulted when Greece refused to recognize its name and the former left Bucharest.

Georgia and Ukraine haven’t received any Action Plan for entering the alliance but secured a written commitment promising that some day they will be admitted to NATO. Viktor Yuschenko, the President of Ukraine, called the summit a historic one noting that all 26 countries were definitely in favour of Ukraine and its NATO membership. Yet he decided not to take into account the opinions of France and Germany which for the time being are against the accession of Ukraine and Georgia to the Action Plan in the foreseeable future. For instance the French party believes that accession of Ukraine and Georgia to NATO can lead to imbalance of influence between Russia and Europe.

At the same time the possibility of antiballistic missile system (ABM) deployment in European countries took real shape at the summit. The matter has been practically settled. However Russia does not lose hope to reconcile the dispute or at least to participate. As Vladimir Putin noted, the meeting with George Bush, which took place in Sochi after NATO forums, resulted in the feeling of “cautious optimism” re positive solution of the problem. Under his words, leastwise G.Bush mentioned that he would like Russia and the USA work together on the systems. “I consider it to be the most important,” stated V.Putin.

The summit was also commented upon by the parliamentarians of the Union State Parliamentary Assembly. In the interview with the correspondent of www.soyuz.by, Valentin Simirski, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs and CIS Relations at the Chamber of Representatives, Chairman of the Committee on Security, Defence and Crime-Fight at the Parliamentary Assembly, stated that Ukraine and Georgia had received a polite rebuff and this can be considered as a positive moment for Russia and the Union State on the whole. “As regards the decision to deploy American ABM systems in Europe, this will for sure abrade our relationship with the USA which tend to oppose Russia,” he noted. V.Simirski also noted that the US leaders had the idea to deploy ABM systems irrespective of Iranian threatening. In this connection he passed an opinion that Russia wouldn’t be silently watching the unbalancing of power in Europe and will find a suitable reply to US actions. “Which one – time will show,” added the parliamentarian.

In his turn, Nikolai Cherginets, Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Foreign Policy, Chairman of the Standing Committee on International Affairs and National Security at the Republic Council of Belarusian National Assembly, believes that NATO summit results were both positive and negative for Belarus and its allies. “Positive was the fact that Europe still has some sensible forces which called the North Atlantic alliance to think over the issue of the accession of Ukraine and Georgia to NATO,” he said to BelTA. Besides that, N.Cherginets added that the leading idea of NATO summit was that one shouldn’t quarrel with Russia and constantly humiliate it, but try to find the possibility of a dialogue.

The negative result of the summit he believes to be the fact that “the promises to admit Ukraine and Georgia to NATO have remained and even sounded on a much higher level than before”. Moreover, summed up the parliamentarian, the USA, looming over Europe, keep promoting their interests that run counter to Russian ones.