Bush wants 2 ex-Soviet states in NATO

President Bush said Tuesday that he has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Moscow has “nothing to fear” if former parts of the Soviet Union join NATO and that Russia should welcome cooperation on a U.S. missile defense network in Central Europe.

After meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in Kiev, Bush declared that he would not soften his support for bringing Ukraine and Georgia into NATO in exchange for Russia dropping its opposition to the missile defense network.

“There’s no trade-offs. Period,” Bush said in response to a reporter’s question about a possible compromise. He stated that it was a “misperception” that he was willing to make such a bargain.

The president said he told Putin in a recent telephone call that it would be “in his interests” to receive information from the missile defense network.

The question of whether to take the initial steps that could lead to Ukraine and Georgia joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization became a dominant issue in the days leading up to an alliance summit, which begins today in Romania.

Bush arrived late Tuesday in Bucharest to attend the meeting.

The future of the missile defense system, which the United States wants to build in Poland and the Czech Republic as a shield against warheads launched from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East, also is likely to be a central topic during Bush’s weekend visit with Putin in Sochi, a Russian Black Sea resort, in what probably will be their final face-to-face meeting before Putin leaves the presidency May 7.

Putin and other Russian officials have objected strenuously that the system, set close to Russia’s borders in former communist bloc nations, would threaten Russian rockets.

For Bush, the Bucharest summit provides an opportunity to draw attention to changes in the alliance since his presidency began in 2001, its reach now covering a swath of Eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea that during the Cold War was part of the Warsaw Pact.

In a speech today, Bush said that extending the initial invitation to Ukraine and Georgia would signal to their citizens “that if they continue on the path of democracy and reform they will be welcomed into the institutions of Europe.” It would signal to the wider region, including Russia, that the two “are, and will remain, sovereign and independent states.”

He said that “the need for missile defense in Europe is real and it is urgent.”

Bush spoke Tuesday in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, at a news conference with Yushchenko, who has been outspoken in his own country in favor of joining NATO. Yushchenko acknowledged that he did not yet have the support of a majority of his citizens.

Referring to that opposition, Bush took note of a demonstration by Ukrainian Communists displaying red flags bearing the hammer and sickle and banners linking Bush and NATO to a profanity.

The demonstrators were encamped Monday and Tuesday at Independence Square, the central site of the Orange Revolution of 2004 that brought Yushchenko to the presidency.

“Just because there was a bunch of, you know, Soviet-era flags in the street yesterday doesn’t -- you shouldn’t read anything into that,” Bush said.

Ukraine and Georgia sit on Russia’s southern flank. Putin has objected to the prospect that NATO, which was founded 59 years ago as a military and political balance to the Soviet Union, might take the initial steps in Bucharest that could lead to their membership.

While Bush seeks to ease Russia’s opposition to Ukraine and Georgia being given what is called a “membership action plan” as a first step, he also must persuade Germany and France to drop their objections, reportedly fueled by Russia’s opposition.

“As every nation has told me,” Bush said, “Russia will not have a veto over what happens in Bucharest, and I take their word for it.”

Yushchenko said that if Germany and France yielded to Russia, NATO’s open door to membership would be “replaced by the veto right” of a country that “is not even a member of the alliance.”

During the news conference and while delivering a toast later at a luncheon, Bush drew attention to Ukraine’s contribution to NATO, even though it is not a member; Ukraine has provided about 330 police officers and soldiers to the NATO peacekeeping force of 16,000 in Kosovo, sent soldiers to Iraq in 2003 and provided aircraft to transport troops to Afghanistan.

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james.gerstenzang@latimes.com