Nato keeps Georgia, Ukraine in the cold

UCHAREST: European leaders kept Georgia and Ukraine waiting at Nato's doorstep on Thursday in a major setback for US President George Bush at his last summit of the transatlantic alliance. Inching deeper into what, during the Cold War, had been enemy territory, Nato extended formal invitations to once-communist Albania and Croatia to start negotiations to become the 27th and 28th members of the bloc. If all goes well, those two Balkan states could be full-fledged members when Nato — the world's most powerful military bloc — celebrates its 60th anniversary next year with a summit in the adjacent French and German cities of Strasbourg and Kehl. But despite 11th-hour American arm-twisting, European leaders — wary of upsetting an increasingly assertive Russia — denied coveted pre-membership status to Georgia and Ukraine, at least until the very end of this year. Both former Soviet republics want in to the so-called Membership Action Plan, or MAP, which grooms erstwhile communist states in eastern European for Nato accession, as a counterfoil to Russian influence. By way of consolation, Nato secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Nato would offer Georgia and Ukraine "intensive engagement", along with a vague promise of membership sometime down the line. "We agree today that these countries will become members of Nato," he told reporters as the heads of state and government broke for lunch. "That is quite something." It would be up to Nato foreign ministers to make "a first assessment of progress" when they meet in December, Scheffer said, adding they would have the authority to grant MAP status if they choose to do so. Making the best of the situation, Georgia's minister for Euro-Atlantic integration, Giorgi Baramidze, said: "The decision has been made to accept us moving toward Nato. We think this is a historic achievement for Georgia." With Russian president Vladimir Putin set to join the summit on Friday, his deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko said letting Georgia and Ukraine into Nato would be "a big strategic mistake".