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For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryApril 5, 2008 President's Radio Address   President's Radio Address  Audio  En Español       In Focus: NATOTHE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I'm speaking to you from Europe, where I attended the NATO summit and witnessed the hopeful progress of the continent's youngest democracies. The summit was held in Romania, one of the 10 liberated nations that have joined the ranks of NATO since the end of the Cold War. After decades of tyranny and oppression, today Romania is an important member of an international alliance dedicated to liberty, and it is setting a bold example for other...

ZAGREB, Croatia: U.S. President George W. Bush was warmly welcomed by the government in Croatia on Friday and he praised the ex-Yugoslav country as a trusted ally. But his opponents used the occasion to protest his foreign policies. Bush came to Zagreb from a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, where Croatia was invited to join the alliance, one of the government's top goals. "We celebrate your invitation to become one of America's closest allies," Bush said in a toast to President Stipe Mesic. "We're so proud of our relationship," Bush said. Croatia's government sees Bush's two-day visit as a clear...

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin last night let fly at one of his last meetings with his US counterpart, George W.Bush, saying some NATO countries had demonised Moscow and failed to reward Russia for helping end the Cold War. A source in the Russian delegation to the NATO summit in Bucharest said Mr Putin - who is due to hold talks with Mr Bush at the Black Sea port of Sochi early today - challenged US policy towards Iran and said the Islamic republic should be helped to emerge from isolation, instead of being threatened. In his address to the 26...

"The United States may send more troops to Afghanistan in 2009, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates confirmed today. President Bush said during the NATO summit conference that ended today that he expects the United States would make a significant additional contribution to the Afghanistan mission next year, Gates said. But Gates backed off any specific commitment, saying the United States first wants to see how much support comes from other allies and how security efforts progress in 2008."

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush vowed on Tuesday to press for Ukraine and Georgia to be allowed to start the process of joining NATO despite resistance from Russia and skepticism from the alliance's European members. Bush, in Kiev on his way to his farewell NATO summit in Romania beginning on Wednesday, said Moscow had no right to veto bids by the two former Soviet republics to join the 26-nation Western defense pact. But French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Paris would oppose giving Kiev and Tbilisi a "Membership Action Plan" -- a roadmap to joining NATO --...

KIEV, Ukraine - Despite Russia's displeasure with NATO's growing ranks, President Bush is encouraging former Soviet republics like Ukraine to join up. Ukraine put on a formal welcoming ceremony for Bush on Tuesday before his meetings with President Viktor Yushchenko at the Presidential Secretariat. The playing of national anthems and parade of high-stepping military men in long, belted dress coats with fur collars was typical of the greetings Bush gets all over the world. But these arrival rites took on particular importance here because of Ukraine's drive to join NATO. Ukrainian officials are determined to showcase the sort of reforms...

WASHINGTON – President Bush wants to bolster the multinational fight in Afghanistan by reminding NATO allies that the war is in their interest – and by persuading them to send more troops into battle. But this will be a challenge for Bush, who was en route to Ukraine Monday at the start of a trip that will also lead to Romania, Croatia and Russia. The NATO alliance is strained currently and is engaged in soul-searching about its place and mission in a rapidly changing world. Beyond Afghanistan, Bush is trying to score a breakthrough on a U.S.-based missile defense system...

MOSCOW - This week's NATO summit in Romania will be Vladimir Putin's last appearance at a top-level international forum before he steps down as Russian president, still pushing to halt NATO's expansion into the stomping grounds of the former Soviet Union. The Kremlin realizes it doesn't have the power to force the West to reverse its recognition of Kosovo's independence or persuade Washington to drop its plan to deploy missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic. But Putin has had notable success in blocking NATO membership for its former Soviet neighbors — Ukraine and Georgia. "Georgia's accession into NATO...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush left on Monday for his farewell NATO summit and a final heads-of-state meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin as he tries to salvage a foreign policy legacy frayed by the Iraq war. Seeking to reassert himself on the world stage in the twilight of his term, Bush will press NATO for more troops in Afghanistan, try to keep up momentum in the alliance's eastward expansion and attempt to ease strains with Russia. But with Bush even more unpopular overseas than at home, he could have a hard time swaying world leaders at this...

BRUSSELS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Russia's ambassador to NATO dismissed on Friday NATO's call for Russian President Vladimir Putin to avoid "unhelpful rhetoric" at next week's NATO summit. In an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he hoped the Russian leader would refrain from making anti-West comments. "Let's try to avoid unhelpful rhetoric, like 'We will target missiles on nations A, B and C.' That is not only unhelpful, but it makes me remember a time when I was growing up when there was a Berlin Wall and an Iron...

RIGA, Latvia — President Bush said Tuesday that an Al Qaeda plot to stoke cycles of sectarian revenge in Iraq is to blame for escalating bloodshed, refusing to debate whether the country has fallen into civil war."There's a lot of sectarian violence taking place — fomented, in my opinion, because of the attacks by Al Qaeda causing people to seek reprisal," Bush said at a news conference with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves during a stop in Estonia. He arrived later at the NATO summit in neighboring Latvia, where discussion will focus on the battle against insurgents in Afghanistan. Bush,...

IstanbulTHERE WERE PLENTY of flashy cocktail dresses at the NATO summit reception hosted by Turkey's foreign minister Abdullah Gül last month. There were plenty of headscarves, too--and the most conservative of these belonged to Gül's wife. Hers was a festive, modern, maroon version of what the Turks call a turban, tucked tight under the chin and bisecting the forehead to hide all hair. The cocktail-dress women were joking and cavorting with the wimple women. Mrs. Gül posed cheerily for photos with European and American friends. There are few societies in which the veil and the cocktail dress coexist for long....

NATO leaders agreed at their recent Istanbul summit to offer a "dialogue" to Middle Eastern countries to help improve security and stability in the region. If NATO is serious about stabilizing the Middle East, by helping to advance democracy and economic prosperity, the place to start is Lebanon. Lebanon is a country that could become a pluralistic and open society based on cooperation among its religious and ethnic communities. The entrepreneurship and economic dynamism of its people could restore its former prosperity - a magnet for tourism and investment, and a model for other countries in the region. Yet for...

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Turkish authorities received a warning that al-Qaida was planning to use a bomb-laden glider in a suicide attack targeting world leaders at the NATO summit in Istanbul, the city's police chief was quoted as saying. The aircraft was supposed to take off from a neighboring country and approach the city by flying over the Black Sea, Cerrah said. "They had chosen a glider because radar would not spot it," Cerrah told the newspaper. "And since it flies without an engine, it would approach the target in silence." Police spokesman Ramazan Er revealed Friday that authorities found and...

(excerpt of article copied from hard copy edition of FT) - SNIP - These testimonies to irrelevance recalled themselves on the eve of this week’s Nato summit in Istanbul. As we gazed sout-east over the Bosphorus in the direction of Iraq, one of those charged with drafting the leader’s communiqué remarked that the outcome had been another bad-temepered compromise. Nato ambassadors had sweated long and hard to gloss over their differences. But, though thickly applied, the gloss was patchy. The ambiguities of the text, this official said, had left room for the obligatory public spat between France and the US....

ISTANBUL (AFP) - Turkish police defused a powerful car bomb in a parking garage at Istanbul airport just ahead of the NATO (news - web sites) summit, newspapers reported after officials had earlier denied such a claim. Bomb disposal experts discovered a 6.5 kilogram (14 pound) bomb in the tire of a car parked in the underground garage on June 25, three days before the summit opened, according to the Sabah and Hurriyet newspapers. The explosion could have caused the collapse of the entire parking lot, according to one expert quoted by the newspapers. CNN-Turk television reported at the time...

“SUMMITS made simple: a guide for reporters”. First find Jacques Chirac. Next invite him to comment on the British position. Bingo. You have yourself a story. That begins: “Europe was divided tonight after President Chirac said . . .” That’s how I was taught to report gatherings of international leaders. Whether at a Nato, EU or G8 summit it’s advice that has never let me down. Thus it was this week in Istanbul. And two weeks ago in Brussels. And the week before that in Georgia. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose as they say. Well, not quite....

June 29, 2004 Bosphorus Bridge was selected as the symbol of the 2004 NATO Summit which was held in Istanbul. Rumors that NATO was no longer needed because it lost its purpose with the collapse of the USSR were put aside and a larger NATO with a redefined purpose to fight terrorism over a large territory, all the way from Fez in North -West Africa to Bangladesh in Central Asia, and covering the Middle East and the Caucasus Republics along the way reemerged. Most of these countries are Muslim, and the purpose is to bring freedom, democracy, and prosperity to...

TDN- I have never wished for the end of a meeting as much as I wished for the end of this one. We have been nervous for days. Would a serious incident occur? Would a bomb explode? Would the protests get out of hand? Actually, we were right to be afraid. No matter how successful an event one organizes is, no matter how good the consequences are, a single incident can ruin it. All the successes of the Istanbul summit would have been forgotten if a single incident had tainted it. Whenever someone mentioned the summit, such an incident would...

Istanbul THE PRESIDENT – (...) Two years ago in Prague (...) the Atlantic Alliance opened a new chapter in its history, marked by the enlargement, the establishment of more flexible and more effective military tools and, lastly, by the strengthening of its partnerships. And this is the task we have pursued today. This summit first of all sets the seal on the new enlargement and, this morning, I was happy to be the spokesman of the heads of State and government, welcoming the seven new members who have joined NATO. We also drew up a first progress report on NATO's...