U.S. President George W. Bush
Photo: Reuters
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Bush to Visit Kiev on April Fool Day
U.S. President George W. Bush will pay an official visit to Kiev April 1, Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko announced during the news conference in Brussels. They will deliberate on the plan of actions for 2008 and 2009 and, perhaps, ink the basic document on this issue, Yushchenko said.
As it turned out, Yushchenko intends to discuss with Bush the potential membership of Ukraine in NATO. Kiev has been long striving for the alliance invitation but no material progress has been noted yet. One of the reasons is Washington’s unwillingness to further aggravate the relations with Moscow clouded by the U.S. program for deploying a missile-defense shield in Europe.
What’s more, the Ukrainians don’t unanimously welcome this initiative of the authorities. The Orange Revolution halved the country in eastern and western parts and the last discussion of Ukraine’s membership in NATO paralyzed the work of Supreme Rada. The crisis was overcome only in March, when Yushchenko threatened to dissolve the parliament if it didn’t resume the work.
Once back to work, the Supreme Rada promptly passed the resolution, whereby only the referendum would decide on joining the NATO. But even if the answer is positive, Ukraine (and Georgia) will hardly become NATO members in the nearest future, the analysts say.
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