Radek Sikorski is a leading contender to become Nato's next secretary-general
Posted on 01/25/2009 8:51:44 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Nato is suffering from 'enlargement fatigue' and has no will to admit Georgia or Ukraine, according to Poland's foreign minister Radek Sikorski.
Mr Sikorski, who is a leading contender to become Nato's secretary-general when the Alliance selects a new chief in April said both countries was a "fairly distant prospect".
Radek Sikorski is a leading contender to become Nato's next secretary-general
But he denied that Russia, which attaches great importance to thwarting Nato's enlargement, had achieved a victory.
Ukraine and Georgia were both promised Nato membership at a summit in Bucharest last April. But no timetable was offered and, four months later, Russia raised the stakes by invading Georgia.
Mr Sikorski said that Nato should "maintain the Bucharest consensus" and the "credible promise of membership".
Asked whether the will to admit Ukraine and Georgia existed, however, he replied: "Not at the moment. At the moment, there's a will to encourage them to reform themselves. But I believe all of our institutions, both the EU and Nato, suffer from enlargement fatigue."
He added: "It's always harder to enlarge in a recession."
Yet the onset of "enlargement fatigue" did not amount to a victory for Russia. "I don't have the feeling that Russia has increased its credibility in the last six months," he said. "The Soviet Union never cut off gas supplies to Western Europe. Soviet strategists had a wonderful expression called 'correlation of forces'.
Mr Sikorski, 45, escaped from Communist Poland and was given asylum in Britain in 1982. While studying at Pembroke College, Oxford, he was a member of the Bullingdon drinking club along with David Cameron and Boris Johnson. Mr Sikorski took British citizenship - and diplomats say that he kept his British passport until he was made Poland's foreign minister in 2007.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Yeah, right.
Ping
scrap NATO, it’s useless now anyway.
When will russia retake east germany? west germany??
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