26 November 2008

Georgia and Ukraine in NATO Is Long-Term Goal, Says State’s Fried

Brussels meeting aimed at placing countries on track for membership

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried

By David McKeeby
Staff Writer

Washington — Leaders of the 26-nation NATO alliance have already agreed that Georgia and Ukraine will join someday, says Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, who called on the trans-Atlantic body to use an upcoming summit to redouble support for long-term reforms to help place the emerging democracies on the path to eventual membership.

“I think it’s fair to predict there would be no NATO membership offer for some years to come, just taking a look at these countries realistically, and they wouldn't disagree,” Fried told reporters November 25. “They have a lot of work to do and we will help them.”

Fried, who serves as assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs, briefed reporters ahead of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s final official visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, where alliance foreign ministers will meet December 2-3 to assess progress on Georgia and Ukraine since the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania.

While NATO members unanimously agreed in their April 3 Bucharest declaration that Georgia and Ukraine “will become members of NATO,” they deferred their decision to offer both countries a Membership Action Plan (MAP) — a multiyear program of intensified support for key political, economic, and military reforms before embarking on a formal bid to join the alliance — until this ministerial meeting. (See “NATO Welcomes Albania and Croatia to Alliance.”)

Since Bucharest, the MAP debate among NATO member states “took on a life of its own,” Fried said, and further has been complicated by Russia’s August 2008 invasion of Georgia over its Moscow-backed separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Other complicating factors are the collapse of Ukraine’s governing coalition and deep divisions within the country over joining NATO — particularly among Ukraine’s sizeable ethnic Russian population. 

“The challenge is for these countries to demonstrate their readiness,” Fried said. “The burden should be on them to demonstrate their readiness and undertake the reforms they need. And our task is twofold: to help them and find a mechanism to help them; and to make clear that we really mean it, that the process of NATO enlargement will continue.”

But MAP “was never an end in itself,” Fried said, and is only one path to membership. While ministers will debate the path ahead, Fried highlighted the NATO-Ukraine Commission and the NATO-Georgia Commission — created in the weeks after Russia’s attack — as possible vehicles for supporting intensified dialogue instead of MAP.

“We want to keep that process in motion, even though the circumstances have changed, and it may take more time and the Russians are very much opposed,” Fried said. “But it is still a process that can work. It will not be simple; it will not be easy; it will not be swift, but moving forward is still something that we believe is in the interests of the alliance and Euro-Atlantic security.”

Russia long has viewed expansion with suspicion, a view Fried called “mistaken.” NATO has proven a powerful incentive for countries to make reforms and improve relations with their neighbors, he said, creating a level of security in Central and Eastern Europe that has benefited Russia.

Other issues topping the agenda include NATO missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, emerging threats such as cyberwarfare and high-seas piracy, building on alliance support for ballistic missile defense, and the future of NATO cooperation with Russia, which was scaled back following its attack on Georgia.

The latest round of peace talks in Geneva on the Russo-Georgia conflict yielded “modest progress,” Fried said. Continued Russian engagement in securing the region, restraining separatist militias, and expanding European civilian cease-fire monitors could further improve the basis for NATO-Russia relations. (See “U.S. Envoys Report Progress in Russia-Georgia Peace Talks.”) 

“There is an understanding in the alliance that we’re going to have to work, and we want to work with Russia,” Fried said. “‘No business as usual’ does not mean no business at all.”

During her trip to Europe, Rice will also visit London, Rome, Helsinki, Finland, and Copenhagen, Denmark.

A transcript of Fried’s remarks is available from America.gov.