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Bush backs Ukraine on Nato bid | Bush backs Ukraine on Nato bid |
(40 minutes later) | |
US President George W Bush has voiced his support for Ukraine's membership of Nato, during a visit to Kiev. | US President George W Bush has voiced his support for Ukraine's membership of Nato, during a visit to Kiev. |
Sitting beside President Viktor Yushchenko, Mr Bush said Kiev had made a bold decision to request membership and the US "strongly supported it". | Sitting beside President Viktor Yushchenko, Mr Bush said Kiev had made a bold decision to request membership and the US "strongly supported it". |
Mr Bush said he would press Nato allies in Romania this week to support Membership Action Plans for both Ukraine and Georgia. | Mr Bush said he would press Nato allies in Romania this week to support Membership Action Plans for both Ukraine and Georgia. |
Russia is fiercely opposed to the eastward expansion of Nato. | Russia is fiercely opposed to the eastward expansion of Nato. |
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told a hearing of the lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, that Ukrainian membership of the Western alliance would "entail a deep crisis in Russian-Ukrainian relations". | Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told a hearing of the lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, that Ukrainian membership of the Western alliance would "entail a deep crisis in Russian-Ukrainian relations". |
He said Ukraine would become a buffer between Europe and Russia. | He said Ukraine would become a buffer between Europe and Russia. |
The West, he added, had to make a strategic choice because "this crisis will also affect in the most adverse way pan-European security too". | The West, he added, had to make a strategic choice because "this crisis will also affect in the most adverse way pan-European security too". |
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon appeared to agree with the Russian assessment during a radio interview on Tuesday. | |
"We think that it is not a good answer to the balance of power within Europe and between Europe and Russia," he said. | |
Anti-Nato protests | |
A few thousand demonstrators shouted anti-Nato slogans in the centre Kiev on Monday evening before Mr Bush's arrival. | |
A court ban on protests meant that number had dwindled to a few hundred as his motorcade drove through the streets on Tuesday morning. Opinion polls in Ukraine suggest there is little public support for Nato membership. | |
After his trip to Kiev, President Bush will travel to Nato's annual summit to press the case for eastern expansion. He will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. | |
The US president was welcomed by an honour guard before talks with President Yushchenko during which Mr Bush said they "spent a lot of time talking about Nato". | |
President Bush said that Russia would not have a veto over Kiev's role in Nato. He said Ukraine was currently the only non-Nato member supporting every Nato mission. | |
The Ukrainian leader was critical of Moscow's attempts to stop his country joining the alliance. | |
"I don't want the basic, fundamental principle... of open doors to the alliance to be changed for, excuse me, the veto power of a nation that is not a member of the alliance," Mr Yushchenko said. |