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| Sunday, 24 November 2002 |
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Bush to take NATO victory lap in eastern Europe VILNIUS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush takes a victory lap in eastern Europe on Saturday to celebrate NATO's second expansion beyond the old Iron Curtain and to bask in praise for Washington's role in making it happen. He will speak to crowds expected to number in the tens of thousands in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius and later in the Romanian capital Bucharest before heading for home. Bush will congratulate the seven ex-communist states which this week were invited to join the transatlantic defence alliance and reaffirm his belief that NATO is the natural home for democracies which have survived tyranny and won liberty."To have these countries allied with the United States and other countries is important to our soul," Bush said this week in an interview with Lithuania's LNK TV. "If you lived under slavery and subjugation, and you're free, there's a spirit...There's no grey area between good and evil. That's an important spirit in NATO." The Baltic states endured half a century of occupation by the Soviet Union until they won their freedom in 1991. They campaigned hard to enter NATO, which they see as a guarantee they will never again be dominated by Moscow. NATO's second expansion into Warsaw pact territory will welcome in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, as well as Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, the first former Soviet republics to join. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined in 1999. Bush sees the new members as a source of fresh energy that will invigorate NATO and help transform it from a Cold War bulwark against communism to a broad alliance that can reach beyond its borders to fight global terrorism. Useful He believes new members could act as counterweights to traditional NATO pillars France and Germany, who question Bush's readiness to go to war if necessary to force Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to dismantle his suspected weapons of mass destruction programmes. Bush this week recalled that Estonian Prime Minister Siim Kallas had said he did not need to be persuaded of the case against Iraq because of Estonia's experience of being subjugated when Western democracies would not stand up to the Soviet Union. "He was clear about the obligations we have," Bush said. "I think we have an obligation to work to free people." Bush won qualified backing on Friday for his Iraq policy from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said ridding Baghdad of prohibited weaponry was the job of the United Nations. Bush had gone to St Petersburg to soothe feelings over NATO expansion. Moscow once fiercely opposed the presence of its Cold War enemy in its backyard but Putin reluctantly accepted it.U.S. officials were elated at Putin's reaction. "He didn't say he liked it. But...it did not provoke a crisis," said a senior official travelling with Bush. NATO itself in Prague on the second day of its historic expansion summit urged Russia to forget past enmity and join it in a common fight against terrorism. Bush arrived in Vilnius on Friday evening, becoming the first U.S. president to visit Lithuania. Large crowds were expected when Bush speaks on Saturday at Rotuse Square in the 16th century centre of historic Vilnius. Hundreds lined Bush's motorcade route into town on Friday. Most of the 7.5 million Balts regard Bush's support for an aggressive expansion of NATO as crucial to their membership bid. Bush's support for a "Europe whole and free" was seen by them as a sign that they would not be left out in the cold. "It will be a celebration of the Baltics, the United States and of course of NATO," Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said of the Bush visit. Bush later heads for Bucharest, where he will congratulate Black Sea neighbours Romania and Bulgaria on joining the alliance and thank them for backing his drive to disarm Iraq. Bush returns to Washington on Saturday evening. |
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