NATO, Russia Reach Land Transit Deal

By Peter Baker
Washington Post
April 4, 2008

The leaders of Russia and NATO tried on Friday to defuse tensions over missile defense, Kosovo independence and the alliance's expansion in a tense meeting that yielded a conciliatory gesture by Moscow but no major breakthroughs.

President Vladimir Putin agreed to let NATO ship non-lethal equipment and supplies through Russian territory to Afghanistan, where the alliance is struggling to tamp down a stubborn insurgency. But the two sides engaged in a spirited dialogue on a range of other issues that have divided them in recent months.

"The discussion was frank and open," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said, using diplomatic code for tough talks. "I cannot report that this morning we saw stunning breakthroughs," he said, adding that on the other hand there was none of the "unhelpful rhetoric" that has soured the relationship lately and drawn talk of an emerging new Cold War.

The meeting here culminated a three-day NATO summit that saw the 26-nation alliance admit the Balkan states of Albania and Croatia but refuse to put the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia on the path to membership in the face of vigorous Russian opposition. Putin, who has threatened to target missiles at the two countries if they join NATO, had made clear he would cancel his trip here if the alliance gave them so-called membership action plans.

Instead, Putin surprised his hosts by showing up uninvited at the NATO leaders' formal dinner Thursday night, once again catching the Western alliance off guard. French President Nicolas Sarkozy had said earlier that day that "we're not afraid of Putin," but Eastern European members fretted that the alliance had essentially capitulated to the Kremlin by deferring talk of membership for Ukraine and Georgia.

The allies did give President Bush a symbolic boost heading into his own one-on-one talks with Putin this weekend at the Russian resort city of Sochi. The leaders approved a communique endorsing Bush's plan to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe despite Putin's vociferous objections, and called on the Russians to join an integrated system.

The discussion Friday morning took place behind closed doors. NATO turned off the microphones and ushered out reporters before Putin gave his opening address, even though they had been allowed to hear Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's speech at a separate session earlier in the day. Russian Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin had complained bitterly before the summit that the plan to not let reporters hear Putin's address amounted to Western censorship of unwelcome viewpoints.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the NATO backing on missile defense could help Bush and Putin reach an agreement in Sochi. "We have a breakthrough document on missile defense for the alliance," she said. Recalling past summits where "perhaps only two allies gave even lukewarm support," she said that "now it is clearly understood in the alliance that . . . the threats of the 21st century make it necessary to have missile defense."

Critics said she was overselling NATO's support, which they called only marginally more expansive than past statements and a concession to Bush after his defeat on expansion.

"This represents more of an incremental progression on this issue," said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. "It is not a full and ringing endorsement of what is clearly a controversial proposal."

The summit was unusually fluid, giving Bush mixed results on other fronts as well. He lined up additional NATO troops for Afghanistan, although not as many as needed. And he presided over the admission of two new members, Albania and Croatia, but not a third he wanted, Macedonia, which was vetoed by Greece in a dispute over its name.

With Bush's support, NATO agreed to preliminary discussions about membership with two other former Yugoslav republics, Bosnia and Montenegro, and even encouraged Serbia to consider joining, nine years after the alliance led a 78-day bombing campaign to push Serb troops out of Kosovo, which has now declared independence.

And in another sign of evolution for the alliance, Sarkozy told his counterparts that France was moving toward rejoining the NATO military command structure more than 40 years after it quit, perhaps as soon as the alliance's 60th anniversary summit next year on the French-German border.

The progress on missile defense represented Bush's biggest claim to victory at the three-day summit, especially coming before his trip to Russia. Bush wants to build a sophisticated radar facility in the Czech Republic and station 10 interceptor missiles in Poland as a hedge against Iran, which is developing ballistic missiles and enriching uranium that the West worries could be used eventually for nuclear weapons.

The Bush administration says Poland and the Czech Republic are ideally located for early detection and interception of missiles coming from the Middle East. Analysts see politics also playing a role, since the former communist nations are more supportive of the project than their Western neighbors and would be further anchored to the alliance by hosting the missile facilities.

After years of negotiations, Bush and Czech leaders announced Thursday that they have reached agreement on permitting the radar facility to be built. The administration is still negotiating with Poland, but hopes it now has momentum to wrap up a deal before Bush leaves office next year.

The NATO communique called the system a "substantial contribution to the protection of Allies from long range ballistic missiles" and ordered officials to "develop options for a comprehensive missile defense architecture to extend coverage to all Allied territory and populations." It urged Russia to drop its opposition and discuss "the potential for linking United States, NATO and Russian missile defense systems."

But the debate on NATO expansion dominated the summit, pitting the United States, Canada and Eastern Europe against France, Germany, Italy and the rest of Western Europe and testing the alliance's resolve in the face of aggressive Russian pressure. Sarkozy said it was premature for the former Soviet republics to be put on the list for membership. "These two countries are destined to join NATO," Sarkozy said. "But there must be agreement at least to discuss the date and terms and conditions."

Bush aides said a majority of the members supported his position but because the alliance operates on consensus, Ukraine and Georgia were denied the membership action plans they sought. "We must give other nations seeking membership a full and fair hearing," Bush told the other leaders.

As a concession to Bush, NATO instructed its foreign ministers to revisit the issue in December, just before he leaves office. "We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO" someday, the communique said.