COM: NATO Brings Joy, Anger, Never Hopelessness

The two former Soviet nations got the same treatment: they were shown a door that stays open, they received firm promises, but for an unspecified date. Russia’s daunting shadow, coupled with consistent reticence from France and Germany, led to the use of the same therapy for both Baku and Kiev. However, to different avail.

 

Georgia thinks it got a “historic promise”. But it’s hard to guess how president Yushchenko is really taking it. It looks like a personal defeat for the Ukrainian leader, who arrived in Bucharest shortly after a meeting with U.S. president George W. Bush. Perhaps pep-talk visits are supposed to take place, to serve as a powerful anesthetic for painful disappointment.

 

Former Yugoslavian countries, however, are served different medicine. Naturally, since no dominant pressure is exercised there, these nations are a playground for outside forces. So NATO shared joy, fury and unexpected generosity among these countries in Bucharest. It confirmed hopes and surely left none hopeless.

 

Rich Croatia is the first star. Tiny Macedonia left enraged, but dignified, burdened with an otherwise predictable outcome, as Greece vetoed it a few steps back from the Alliance door. Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina will engage in “intensified dialog”. As for the hard place that is Serbia, Russia’s beloved protégé, it’s not keen on asking NATO for anything. But it will get something, because NATO wants it. And let’s not forget the Cinderella that is Albania.  The summit saw no happier man than the Albanian prime minister, a steady American-lover.

 

But what’s in it for the host? We got the Black Sea. Not just any sea, but a stretch of water with a regional importance recognized at the highest level, which thrilled Romanian president Traian Basescu.

 

But Romania could get something out of the last day of the summit, at the NATO-Russia Council. Obviously, it’s an optimistic perspective and it’ll be an exciting day. Vladimir Putin himself will be there. Putin, who played hard to get and who utterly ignored his host and pestering opponent Basescu.

 

But the wide world doesn’t revolve around the sympathies, or lack of thereof, of a small country president.