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Putin Meets with NATO Leaders

By Paula Wolfson
Bucharest
04 April 2008

NATO leaders wrapped up their Bucharest summit with a closed-door meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. VOA's Paula Wolfson reports from the Romanian capital.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hope Scheffer opened the session with brief public remarks.

He noted it has been six years since the establishment of the NATO-Russia Council to deal with issues between the alliance and Moscow.

"Today, our relations are truly multi-faceted, influenced both by political realities and issues on which we differ as well as by practical and very pragmatic common interests," he said.

And then the news media was ushered out, and the doors were closed.

In private, President Putin was likely to raise his objections to U.S. plans for a missile defense system in central Europe, and further NATO expansion along Russia's borders.

On Thursday, NATO endorsed the missile defense plan. The western military alliance also turned down a bid by Georgia and Ukraine to be put on an immediate path to membership, but declared it wants to bring the two former Soviet republics into the fold at some point in the future.

Just hours before President Putin met with summit leaders, the alliance discussed the outlook for eventual membership with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

Secretary-General Scheffer emphasized that while the alliance failed to approve a membership action plan for Ukraine and Georgia, the request is far from dead. He noted NATO foreign ministers will revisit the issue in December.

"There was a clear signal in the decision yesterday that the aspirations for Membership Action Plan are supported," he said.

Mr. Yushchenko put the decision in the best possible light, focusing on the promise of future action.

"This is the first time when it was clear determined that Ukraine will be in NATO. This is an historic event for our people and our country," he said.

Ukraine is currently the only non-NATO country participating in all alliance peacekeeping operations around the world. President Yushchenko said he is sure Ukrainian soldiers will one day serve as troops of a NATO-member nation.