NOTE: the interview can be read on the following web-site: http://www2.tvr.ro/summitnato/The President of the USA, George W. Bush, expressed his confidence, in an interview for the national Romanian TV station, that the NATO Summit starting next week in Bucharest will be one “marked by success”, even if there are also challenges to be faced. In his opinion, the Summit “will display a total agreement” in all the four main direction of the work agenda, namely the anti-missile shield, internet criminality and anti-terrorism.Regarding the NATO missions in Afghanistan, that is going to constitute a new point of discussion on the Summit agenda, according to the White House leader, George W. Bush appreciated that NATO “acknowledges these challenges and will give a proper response”.He reminded the fact that the French President Nicolas Sarkozy clearly stated a few days ago that France is going to increase its presence on the Afghan territory and that the American administration also intends to strengthen its troops in Afghanistan.The President of USA marked the fact that he expects the Allies to take “a new commitment for security, a new strategy, and secondly an engagement regarding the number of troops in the area”. “Success doesn’t happen over night, it takes time”, mentioned Bush, appreciating that “in both cases we will reach an agreement”.The third topic of the Summit next week will be, according to the American President, NATO enlargement, and in this context George W. Bush evoked “a historic moment for Bucharest”, since Bucharest will host a Summit that will mark the enlargement of the North-Atlantic Alliance by three new countries.The White House leader that even if he has his “own opinion regarding this enlargement, all decisions will be taken in Romania”. Forthly, the Bucharest Summit will refer to the aspirations of Ukraine and Georgia of joining NATO, said the American President. “Surely this will be a historic moment. I don’t know if “difficult” is the right word; I would rather call it “historic”, concluded George W. Bush.NATO is a force that encourages reforms and modernization; a force referring rendering a feeling of security, argued the American president. In this context, he reminded us the message addressed to all Romanians on his visit to Romania in 2002; “if one is under attack, we are all under attack, and the United States will be there for them”. “I also said” – remembered Bush – “that the feeling of security means trust, and trust gives hope to people. I believe that the enlargement of NATO will have a positive influence in a region with a harsh history”. During the same interview, cast on Thursday evening, George W. Bush, expressed his “optimism” regarding the possibility of “open-mindedness’ in the issue of the anti-missile shield, on the occasion of his meeting with his Russian homologue, Vladimir Putin, at the NATO Summit from Bucharest. “We hope for an open approach”, said Bush, explaining that the reason for his optimism is “the very good meeting” the State Secretary Condoleezza Rice and the Ministry of Defense Robert Gates recently had in Moscow, with “President Putin and his team”. When asked if Bucharest might be the place of a historic agreement on this issue, President Bush declared that probably, during his meeting from Bucharest, they are going to establish the details of his visit to Vladimir Putin at Soci, after the Summit. “There we will be talking about the anti-missiles shield because it is important for the Russian President to understand that this defense system is not against Russia but against a common threat which could be a missile launched from Middle East”, underlined Bush.Referring to the bilateral visit to Romania with the occasion of the NATO summit the White House leader expressed his confidence that it would contribute to the development of the bilateral relations and would offer the guarantee that the citizens from both countries would understand that between USA and Romania “there is more than just the commitment from Iraq and Afghanistan”. “Our relations are more than that, more than the threats with which we are confronted. Our relations are commercial, educational, in America there is a vivid interest regarding investments”, noted George W.Bush. The President of the USA qualified Romania’s contribution to the war against extremism as “an important contribution which caused sacrifices on behalf of NATO, on behalf of the Romanian people, in particular on behalf of those who lost the closed ones in this war”, and offered his “sincere condolences and prays” to the mourning families. George W. Bush confirmed the idea of common project USA – NATO to create a defense system for short-range missiles, system which would cover Romania, Greece and Turkey and which would complete the American shield. “Of course, the idea exists”, mentioned Bush. Reminding that “the idea of anti-missile shield on USA’s opinion is against long-range missiles”, the American President admitted that “there is a need of defense also against the short-range ones”. “Also in this matter NATO and USA could collaborate in order to ensure that this anti-missile defense protects all our friends and allies”, affirmed the President Bush.
(Source: Rompres) |
