From left, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, Russian President Vladimir
Putin, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson and President Bush pose
on stage following the group photo at the NATO Russia summit in the Pratica
di Mare Italian Air Force base on the outskirts of Rome, 28 May
2002, after NATO and Russia signed a new agreement of cooperation creating
the NATO-Russia Council.
Concerned about terrorist attacks, Italy deployed 15'000
security forces members and mounted robust air and sea defenses to
protect the 20 world leaders. All Italian airlines and some foreign
carriers suspended Rome operations to guard against possible hijackings.
The world leaders at the summit said the meeting heralded a new era
of cooperation on fighting global terrorism threats, and signaled
the end of the Cold War: “Two former foes are now joined as partners,
overcoming 50 years of division and a decade of uncertainty,” Bush
said in remarks to the council. “This partnership takes us even closer
to a larger goal, a Europe that is whole, free and at peace for the
first time in history.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, accepting
his country’s new role, said “this is only the beginning. We have
come a long way from confrontation to dialogue, and from confrontation
to cooperation.” He continued: “The significance of this meeting is
difficult to overestimate,” Putin said, noting that a few years ago,
such a role for Russia “would have been, simply, unthinkable, whereas
today it has become a reality.”
• NATO's evolution
Leader after leader cited 11 September, and the lingering terror
threat, as a catalyst for new cohesion and determination among NATO
members. “The months since have made clear that by working together
against these threats, we multiply our effectiveness,” Bush said.
For more than a decade since the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO and
Russia have been at odds over how to overcome Cold War rivalries.
While the Kremlin and the 19-member alliance have cooperated on peacekeeping
operations and conducted joint military exercises, the closer cooperation
envisioned in the new NATO-Russia alliance is expected to effectively
bury the hatchet on decades of Cold War animosity.
NATO EXPANSION
Russia’s participation comes as NATO looks forward to expanding further
in November and as it ponders its role in an age when Russia is no
longer an adversary, but a friend. Advertisement Even so, its future
involvement will be limited to certain areas. The new partnership
will give Russia an equal voice on certain security issues from the
fight against terrorism to halting the spread of weapons of mass destruction,
emergency planning and peacekeeping. Under the new arrangement, NATO
and Russia will decide only on those issues on which they can find
consensus. More contentious issues will be left off their agenda,
and NATO will keep a free hand in setting and implementing policy.
PUTIN AND BUSH MEET AGAIN
For Putin and President Bush, it was their second get-together in
a week. Bush spent three days in Russia last week as part of a four-nation
European tour, visiting both Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Moscow
last week, the two leaders agreed to slash their strategic nuclear
arsenals to one-third of the present levels over the next decade.
Bush began the day Tuesday with a visit with Italian President Carlo
Azeglio Ciampi. Bush, who has been looking tired in recent days, was
asked whether he had gotten over his jet leg. “Who’s got jet lag?”
he replied. May 27 — On a Memorial Day visit, President Bush speaks
at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, where
approximately 9,400 Americans who died during the D-Day landings are
buried. On Monday, Bush marked the Memorial Day holiday with a tour
of Normandy, site of the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion that ultimately
liberated France and turned the tide of World War II. “Our security
is still bound up together in a trans-Atlantic alliance, with soldiers
in many uniforms defending the world from terrorists at this very
hour,” Bush said at the Normandy American Cemetery. The United States
counts Russia as a key ally in the present anti-terrorism war — just
as it was a key ally in World War II. The intervening Cold War repeatedly
has been pronounced ended.
COLLABORATING ON MILITARY PLANS
In advance of the ceremony, NATO opened a military mission in Moscow
on 27 May 2002. “This will allow ... NATO and Russia, to discuss
... and take decisions on things to be done in collaboration in fields
of security and military interests,” said Italian Admiral Guido Venturioni,
head of NATO’s military committee. Putin put a different spin on the
new arrangement, portraying it as “an extra contribution by Russia
to international security.”
The new council is to replace a consultative
body set up in May 1997 to ease Moscow’s alarm over NATO’s plans to
include some of Russia’s Soviet-era allies and neighbors. The rupture
over the NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia undermined the earlier
effort. NATO will meet in November in Prague and likely expand by
six or seven Eastern European nations, some of which border Russia.
The last time NATO expanded was in 1999, when Poland, Hungary and
the Czech Republic joined. That expansion was approved only after
long, contentious debate in the U.S. Senate and elsewhere. This time,
little opposition has surfaced to opening NATO’s doors wider. Even
Putin appears resigned to what the Bush administration is calling
a “robust enlargement.” But some in Moscow are more skeptical. Russia’s
Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti news
agency — in comments later attributed to a Kremlin source — that the
defense alliance’s plan for a second round of eastward enlargement
was a “mistake.” “From whom is NATO preparing to defend its new members?”
he said. “And why is such a defense needed if we are no longer enemies
and the period of confrontation is over?” Some European allies have
expressed concern that the Bush administration sees NATO as increasingly
irrelevant. U.S. commanders were frustrated in having to coordinate
every step with NATO partners in the 1999 Kosovo war. In the Afghanistan
campaign, NATO essentially sat on the sidelines. Bush administration
officials would like to see NATO improve its military capacity — becoming
more mobile and more effective — as it enlarges to complete the reunification
of Europe.
After Tuesday’s NATO summit, Bush went
to the Vatican for a meeting with Pope John Paul II before heading
home to the United States.
^^^
[photo: Bush receives a present from the Pope]
US President Bush on 28 May 2002 took before
Pope John Paul II his concerns about the state of the Roman Catholic Church
in light of the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the institution.
Upon arriving at the papal palace, Bush was
escorted past a row of Swiss Guards in red-plumed helmets and into a study
where the pope stood waiting beside his desk. Leaning on his chair for support,
the frail pontiff motioned for Bush to sit on the opposite side of the desk
and the president did, perching expectantly on the edge of his armchair.
The pope then took his seat, adjusted his desk mat and began their private
talks.
At a NATO-Russian summit before the meeting,
Bush described the pope as “a man of enormous dignity and compassion,” and
expressed a desire to discuss alleged sexual improprieties committed by
priests in the United States. “I’m going to listen closely to what the Pope
has to say,” Bush said. “I will tell him that I am concerned about the Catholic
Church in America, I’m concerned about its standing. “I say that because
the Catholic Church is an incredibly important institution in our country,”
Bush said. “I’m also going to mention the fact that I appreciate the Pope’s
leadership.”
PAPAL SUMMONS
In April 2002, the pope summoned U.S. cardinals to the Vatican to discuss
the sex scandals. He condemned sexual abuse by priests as criminal, and
said there is no room in the priesthood for those who engage in such behavior.
Bush’s comments were his first on the matter since March, when he said he
was confident the church would “clean up its business.” He backed embattled
Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, who has become a lightning rod for criticism
since.
“I respect him a lot,” Bush said in March
shortly after Law had given prosecutors the names of at least 80 priests
accused of sexually abusing children. Roman Catholic voters are highly sought
after, because they tend to switch party allegiances from election to election
according to the candidate they prefer, and often can tip the balance at
the ballot box. Polls show Americans are disappointed by the church’s handling
of the sex abuse situation.
CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES
Bush last had an audience with the pope in July 2001. When the two met then
at the pope’s summer residence, the top issue was stem cell research. The
pope urged Bush to reject research on human embryos — one of many voices
he heard before announcing support for federal funding for limited medical
research on existing lines of embryonic cells. John Paul went into Tuesday’s
meeting after a trying five-day trip to Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, which concluded
Sunday with the Vatican suggesting the pope may have to cut back on future
trips. Throughout his 24-year papacy, the only trips postponed because of
John Paul’s health were a 1994 visit to New York after the pontiff broke
his leg and a trip to Armenia in 1999 after he came down with the flu.