President Bush said Tuesday he will work "as hard as I can" to help Ukraine join NATO and declared that Russia will not be able to veto former Soviet states joining the transatlantic military alliance.
"Your nation has made a bold decision and the United States strongly supports your request," Bush told Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko after talks at the Presidential Secretariat here.
Bush praised Ukraine's democratic and military reforms, and noted that Ukraine "is the only non-NATO nation supporting every NATO mission."
Ukraine has sent troops to Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq. He also portrayed the decision as one that is "in the interests of our organization."
The president's brief visit to Kiev was meant to be a show of support for the country's NATO ambitions ahead of the alliance's summit later this week in Bucharest, Romania.
Ukraine is hoping NATO members will vote to give it a so-called membership action plan, which outlines what a country needs to do to join and is a precursor to a membership invitation. Georgia also wants the same treatment.
"In Bucharest this week, I will continue to make America's position clear: We support MAP for Ukraine and Georgia," Bush said. "My stop here should be a clear signal to everybody that I mean what I say: It's in our interest for Ukraine to join."
Said Yushchenko: "I am sure that we will receive a positive signal in Bucharest and that's the spirit that we are going there with."
Bush and Yushchenko met with reporters in a narrow room with a high ceiling decorated with ornate molding. The two leaders sat at a low credenza behind a wide arrangement of yellow and red roses and other flowers spread along the floor.
Ukraine had long flirted with joining NATO, but it started taking real steps toward meeting the alliance’s military and political standards only after Yushchenko became president in the wake of the 2004 street protests, called the Orange Revolution.
Since then, Ukraine has gained a vibrant opposition, a robust media and has held a series of clean elections. It has also set out to modernize its Soviet-style military, including creating an all-volunteer army and changing troop deployment and training to meet NATO standards. Kiev abandoned customs and practices that date to Soviet and even Czarist Russia times, such as using soldiers for kitchen duty and outfitting them in cumbersome footwear. It also sought to prove itself by deploying troops to Iraq in 2003-2005 and sending peacekeepers to Kosovo and Lebanon.
Remaining problems, however, range from rampant corruption to constant political turmoil, which has caused a stream of government shake-ups and early elections over the past years.
Moscow's opposition
But among the biggest obstacles in Ukraine's path to NATO membership is Russia. With nine former Soviet bloc countries already members, NATO countries abut some of Russia's borders and Moscow fiercely opposes further eastward expansion of the alliance that it denounces as a Cold War relic.
As a result, Germany and France have spoken out against putting Ukraine on the list just yet. They fear upsetting already strained ties with Russia, which is a major supplier of energy to Europe.
But Bush said Moscow should not — and would not — have the last word.
"Every nation has told me Russia will not have a veto over what happens in Bucharest. I take their word for it," he said. "I wouldn't prejudge the outcome just yet, the vote will be taken in Bucharest."
Tensions over U.S. missile defense plans
Still, for all Moscow’s irritation over NATO expansion, it is small compared with how Russia feels about Bush’s proposal for placing missile defenses in Europe.
Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said no deal over the bitter missile defense dispute was in hand yet, though he thought Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin could could reach one when they meet Sunday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. That is to be the last stop on Bush’s weeklong trip to the region, which is to be anchored by his attendance at the NATO summit.
“I think we’re moving in a direction where ... Russia and the United States could have missile defense as an area of strategic cooperation,” Hadley told reporters as the president flew to Ukraine.
For months, Putin has stepped up his anti-American rhetoric, demanding that the United States abandon the plan to base missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic, two former Soviet satellites. He has complained it would upset the balance of power and was aimed at weakening Russia, charges the United States has denied repeatedly.
In recent days, there have been signs of progress toward resolving the dispute. Bush sent Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Moscow with concessions to ease Russia’s concerns. Bush also sent a personal letter to Putin, and a Russian delegation spent several days in Washington last week working on the problem.
