Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Bush meets with Yushchenko, gives qualified support for slot in NATO

Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko suffered near-fatal dioxin poisoning last fall, leaving his face scarred.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. supports expanding NATO to include Ukraine, a former Soviet republic trying to loosen ties to Russia, but membership in the Western alliance is not guaranteed, President Bush said Monday.

"There is a way forward in order to become a partner of the United States and other nations in NATO," Bush said during a joint press conference with Viktor Yushchenko, the populist politician whose Orange Revolution forced out Ukraine's pro-Russian government last year.

"It's not a given. In other words, there are things that the Ukrainian government must do," Bush said.

NATO membership is by invitation of the member states, and requires guarantees of political, military and economic openness.

"We want to help your government make the difficult decisions and difficult choices necessary to become available for membership in NATO," Bush said.

"The ideals for the new Ukraine are the ideals shared by western civilization," Yushchenko said through an interpreter.

Yushchenko called corruption the No. 1 problem at home.

"I would like to clearly state that the rules of the game (have) changed in Ukraine, that the law is working in Ukraine," Yushchenko said through an interpreter.

Yushchenko is on a three-day trip to the United States to lobby for aid and investment.

The trip comes a little more than two months after Yushchenko took office following a dramatic popular uprising. Yushchenko said that the Russian-backed regime of his predecessor, Leonid Kuchma, had tried to assassinate him. Yushchenko suffered near-fatal dioxin poisoning during last fall's presidential election, which left his face scarred.

[Last modified April 5, 2005, 01:31:18]