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Europe Won’t Accelerate NATO Entry of Georgia, Ukraine
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney renewed his call for cooperation of Europe and Washington in relation to Georgian crisis. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini agreed to the offer, but the agreement doesn’t appear particularly solid when it comes to the actual dates for admitting Georgia and Ukraine to the alliance.
Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said, that during the talks, he and Cheney expressed their "shared wish for intense collaboration between Europe and the United States." "This Caucasus crisis cannot be solved unless there is intense collaboration ... which we will have," Frattini said after the 40-minute meeting on the sidelines of a conference on Lake Como, The Associated Press reported.
But the opinion of Europe and Washington doesn't seem so undivided when it comes to the dates to accept Georgia and Ukraine to NATO. Cheney advocates the soonest membership, reasoning that Russia pressurizes by its vast energy wealth and hinders the development of young democracies.
According to Frattini, the decision of Europe is to neither artificially accelerate nor slow down the acceptance of new members.
When meeting with the representatives of political and business elite in Italy, the U.S. vice president lashed out at Russia blaming on it the breach of the civilized standards in Georgia and the sale of sophisticated weapons to the countries of Middle East, specifying that a portion of armaments supplied to Syria goes to extremists in Lebanon and Iraq.
Cheney visited Georgia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine before Italy. In Azerbaijan, he endeavored to win the support for the plans to promote the energy routes bypassing Russia. Some sources say Aliev didn’t give the awaited answer.
www.kommersant.com
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