Headed for a NATO train wreck?: Greeks rally against the admission of

Macedonia to NATO. The reason? … Athens insists Macedonia change

its name …

 

 

Novosti, Russia

'Dishes May Brake' at

NATO's Next Summit

 

"Germany could potentially 'break lots of dishes' … The U.S. and Britain have been unable to persuade Berlin to send German Army units to the south - where there is a real war. … The Greeks are threatening to ruin the picture with an issue that seems extremely ridiculous ... The Greeks are flatly refusing to permit Macedonia's entry into NATO until it changes its name. Greece argues that Macedonia is part of northern Greece, is the birthplace of Alexander the Great, and that it won't allow anyone to take that glorious name away from them!"

 

By Andrei Fedyashin

 

Translated By Igor Medvivev

 

March 3, 2008

 

Russia - Novosti - Original Article (Russian)

Condi at the NATO foreign minister's meeting on March 6. Georgia and Unkraine had their hopes for membership dashed - for now.

MOSCOW: So, NATO foreign ministers at a working meeting in Brussels decided - for the time being - not to add Georgia and Ukraine to the Membership Action Plan. The plan represents something like a formal "road map" for NATO. By following the road signs and landmarks, potential candidates should eventually reach the gates of alliance headquarters in Brussels. But Ukraine and Georgia haven't made it to the roadside yet. That decision was taken at a NATO meeting on March 6, which was called to discuss the upcoming NATO summit in April in Bucharest.

 

NATO, it must be said, hasn't given up on plans to bring Yushchenko's Kiev and Saakashvili's Tbilisi into the alliance. Rather, this is a postponement. In practice it means that they won't be any closer to NATO for at least a year, and so can't become members for at least another four years. The arithmetic is simple: implementing the plan's requirements usually takes a year or two, so another two years pass before candidates receive official invitations to NATO, which is usually done at the annual summit.

 

There are several reasons for the decision in Brussels. Although the U.S. is pressing for early admission, NATO veterans like France and Germany strongly recommended this delay, in order - to quote a German diplomat, "not to further antagonize Moscow, with which relations are bad enough due to the 'Kosovo precedent,' quarrels over new [U.S.] missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic and differences over conventional arms control in Europe."

 

European diplomats of "old NATO" didn't hide their views that to alienate Russia further in order to please Tbilisi and Kiev, would be a serious mistake. Especially when in Moscow a new President - Dmitry Medvedev -- is taking the reins of power. For whatever reason, in Europe he is widely perceived to be pro-Western, unlike Putin. So it is thought that accession provide a "good opportunity" to revive relations with Moscow, which have greatly deteriorated over the past four years.

 

All of these lines of reasoning are valid. But, there's one more reason that now seems to outweigh all other considerations. That is the forthcoming NATO summit in Bucharest in April. The allies head to the summit so heavy with differences, simply no one wanted to squeeze the " Georgia-Ukraine trifles" onto the agenda.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

The thing is, that the summit simply must be a success. After all, it is slated to be the largest in the history of the alliance. Moreover, it will be attended by all 26 heads of state and government. The invited participants include all the non-NATO countries of the anti-terrorist coalition in Afghanistan, financial donors such as Japan, in addition to officials from the United Nations and the European Union. Also waiting in Budapest will be outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin. The media are already emphasizing that this will be the first time that Russia will officially participate at a NATO summit.

 

The two main issues on the agenda: the situation in Afghanistan, particularly the strengthening of NATO's contingent in the country; and NATO's enlargement by admitting the new Balkan members of the alliance: Macedonia, Albania and Croatia. And here is precisely where the trouble begins.

 

Germany could potentially "break lots of dishes" at the party in Bucharest. The United States and Britain have been unable to persuade Berlin to send units of the Bundeswehr  [German Army] currently guarding the calm north of Afghanistan to the south - where there is a real war. While so far, Angela Merkel has argued that the Bundeswehr cannot "be torn apart going between different parts of Afghanistan." This is highly disingenuous, since no one expects the Bundeswehr to "tear itself apart": NATO (Washington) simply requires that it send additional units to the south. But how, since at home the polls show that 86 percent of Germans oppose any participation of their soldiers in combat? Merkel's Grand Coalition is not doing very well on the economic front either, so the very thought of what would happen if it yields to U.S. demands throws the coalition into a tremor.

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The greatest pressure on the Germans emanates from Washington. And pressure they have. It used to be that the U.S. turned the heat on wavering allies two or three months before major NATO meetings - but this time around, it began "grinding away" at them nine months beforehand. Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent an open letter to Berlin, in which he explicitly castigated the Germans for sitting in their barracks while Americans and Britons are being killed in southern Afghanistan.

 

The Republic of Macedonia and Greek Macedonia ...

And neither are things going smoothly with regard to NATO expansion in the Balkans. Not at all smoothly. The Greeks are threatening to ruin the picture with an issue that seems extremely ridiculous in the eyes of all but the truest Helene patriot. The Greeks are flatly refusing to permit Macedonia's entry into NATO until the Republic changes its name. Greece argues - and not for the first time - that Macedonia is part of northern Greece, is the birthplace of Alexander the Great, and that it won't allow anyone to take that glorious name away from them!

 

At the most recent NATO meeting last March, the Greeks remained adamant, despite being reminded that Macedonia's accession to NATO is as strategically important as the independence of Kosovo, since it should help strengthen the alliance's presence in the Balkans and for the sake of their own stability. The Greeks were unmoved.

 

So in general, no matter how you look at it, the NATO summit in Bucharest will be historic and the largest, but it will also be the most difficult.

 

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[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US March 13, 02:40am]