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Laura Bush: Russia Not A NATO
Recruit
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-1748723,00.html
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - First lady Laura Bush met Monday with Czech
President Vaclav Havel at Prague Castle and agreed that Russia can be a ``nice
ally'' to NATO but shouldn't be a member.
Mrs. Bush and Havel, in 30 minutes of talks at a candlelit table in his
presidential office, discussed the November NATO summit here in Prague. The
alliance is to decide then which countries, if any, to invite in as members.
Havel opined in The Washington Post over the weekend that Russia ``for
various historical and geographic reasons ... is such a clearly independent part
of today's world, that its only relationship with NATO can and will be that of a
separate entity.''
As Havel's wife, the former stage actress Dagmar Havlova, led a VIP tour of
the castle's gilded staterooms, reporters asked Mrs. Bush about Havel's thoughts
on NATO expansion.
``I think, actually, his viewpoint is also what President Bush thinks - that
Russia can be a nice ally to NATO, but not necessarily a member,'' she said.
The Czech Republic joined NATO with Poland and Hungary three years ago in the
alliance's first post-Cold War expansion.
Mrs. Bush, nearing the end of a three-nation tour with daughter Jenna, said a
highlight was the chance to speak with Havel, the playwright at the vanguard of
the ``Velvet Revolution'' that, in 1989, persuaded Communist rulers to resign.
He was opening his presidential residence to Mrs. Bush for cocktails before
taking her to a Prague restaurant for dinner.
``I'm really interested in his life story, so I hope he'll tell us a lot
about his life tonight,'' said Mrs. Bush.
She has called Havel's experiences symbolic of ``the opening of Central
Europe after communism'' and said Monday that she and President Bush hope to
play host to Havel in Washington in the fall ``on his final official trip as
president.''
Constitutionally barred from running again, Havel, 66, will retire in January
2003.
Earlier Monday, Mrs. Bush spoke about current affairs in the Czech Republic
over a 30-minute ``morning coffee'' with Vaclav Klaus, speaker of the lower
chamber of the Czech Parliament, Klaus said. She also soaked up Prague's
cultural sites, visiting Strahov Monastery, Church of Our Lady Victorious and
the cemetery and synagogue of the Jewish Quarter.
At Prague Castle, seat of the Czech presidency, Mrs. Bush got a history
lesson in Bohemians, Hapsburgs, kings and emperors. Many of the rooms dating to
the year 880 are being restored in anticipation of the fall NATO summit, she
said.
NATO countries and Russia have negotiated creation of a new NATO-Russia
Council, a deal that will be officially signed when Russian President Vladimir
Putin meets with Bush and other NATO leaders outside Rome on May 28.
The deal stops short of full NATO membership for Russia but offers a forum
for it and the 19-member alliance to set joint policy on counterterrorism,
controlling proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and other
issues. |
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