STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK Russia admits it has no veto on NATO's push east BUDAPEST, May 29 (AFP) - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov admitted Tuesday that, while Moscow opposes NATO enlargement to the east, it cannot impose a veto on the Alliance's continued expansion. Speaking at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Budapest -- the first such gathering to be held in a former communist country -- he declined to comment specifically when asked about the Baltic nations' hopes of joining the alliance. "We have no grounds to change our position," he told reporters when asked about the possibility of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia joining. But he said: "Clearly Russia does not have a right of veto; that is, we can't ban this or that state, whether they want to join NATO or not." NATO took in three former Soviet bloc states -- Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic -- in its last round of expansion in 1999, and is expected to consider extending further invitations at a summit in Prague late next year. Nine countries are officially candidates: the three Baltic states -- whose candidacy is widely seen as being the most politically sensitive -- plus Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Macedonia. Ivanov's comments came as Lithuania's foreign minister said the three ex-Soviet Baltic states were "sick and tired" of being kept out of NATO because of Russia's objections. "We in Lithuania are sick and tired of being labelled as a special case in NATO enlargement," Antanas Valionis said at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly's five-day meeting in Vilnius. The Baltic states' entry into NATO would be "historical justice" as they were condemned to nearly half a century of Soviet occupation because of the Yalta agreement between the World War II allies, he said. Russia decided to boycott the Vilnius gathering, saying its presence would be interpreted as implicit acceptance of the Baltic states -- which are also EU candidates -- joining NATO. Ivanov said he did not discuss NATO expansion with foreign ministers he met Tuesday, but insisted anyway that Russia was interested in the broader picture. "We are talking about more serious issues on a global scale, such as what sort of Europe we want to see in the 21st century," he said. "This is question we will have to answer, if not today then tomorrow." "If we accept that NATO is Russia's partner and vice versa ... then we should try to build together a security architecture which is beneficial to all European countries," he said. Ivanov also sounded a conciliatory note on another sensitive issue: new US President George W. Bush's proposal for a missile defence system, which critics fear would jeopardize global security architecture. While he said that "Russia's position has not changed" on the missile defence initiative, he stressed that Moscow was consulting with NATO members and had its own proposals. In any case "the US administration is not resorting to unilateral decisions, and we hope that consultations will help us find a way ... not to undermine the security architecture that has been built up over the last 30 years," he said. Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
