euro|topics - NATO talks in Ukraine

04/07/2009

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Main focus of Tuesday, June 17, 2008

NATO talks in Ukraine

The visit to Kiev by NATO's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has kindled new discussion about admitting the country to the North Atlantic Alliance. Russia is against the move, because its Black Sea fleet is stationed in the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol. But there is also opposition from within Ukraine. How does Europe's press assess the talks?

Delo - Slovenia

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's visit to Ukraine prompts the daily Delo to report on the dispute over Russia's Black Sea fleet which is based in Sevastopol. The city on the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea is celebrating the 225th anniversary of its founding. "Yushchenko [the Ukrainian president] suffered the greatest disappointment at the NATO summit in Bucharest last April. He had hoped to enter the MEP action plan together with Georgia; this constitutes the first step towards formal membership of NATO. NATO's new model student faces two major problems: the first is opposition to membership within Ukraine and then there is opposition from Russia. Russia's deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov once again warned Ukraine: 'I am convinced that the number of Russian tourists on Crimea's beaches will go down. I very much doubt they will be replaced by tourists from the US, the UK and Germany.' Ivanov was playing the tourism card. 'I congratulate the residents of our heroic Sevastopol on the occasion of its jubilee', he added. Ukraine pricked up its ears at his use of the word 'our'." (17/06/2008)

Diário de Notícias - Portugal

The newspaper Diário de Notícias writes that allowing Ukraine to enter NATO would be a provocation to Russia: "Opinion on NATO membership is divided in Ukraine. But a possible expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance is above all causing worries to the North, in Russia. Moscow can only construe the continual eastward expansion of NATO ... as an attack. ... Russia is no longer as strong as the former USSR used to be, but it continues to see itself as a major power. And major powers do not like it when they are provoked directly on their doorsteps. Provoking the Russia of Medvedev and Putin without any geopolitical reason for doing so means running an unnecessary risk. And it remains to be proven that Ukraine's membership can be of any advantage to NATO." (17/06/2008)

Ziniu Radijas - Lithuania

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer arrived in Kiev with a delegation on Monday to discuss the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine. Despite protests from Russia, radio commentator Ceslovas Iskauskas sees the country on the right path towards the West: "What is it they say? Things move on. Ukraine became a member of NATO's space control programme on 13 June, and Kiev has long been participating in almost all the alliance's operations, whether in Afghanistan, Kosovo or patrolling activities in the Mediterranean. Ukraine is now preparing to participate in NATO's fast intervention troops, which are deployed to crisis regions. However, most of Ukraine's military equipment is outdated, and this confirms the West's fears that the country's membership will prove hard to swallow for everyone involved." (17/06/2008)

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, June 17, 2008

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