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East Europeans to Declare Support for Bush on Iraq
Up to 10 east European countries are preparing a declaration of support for President Bush's drive to disarm Iraq, government officials said Tuesday. Officials in Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltics said NATO candidate countries were working on the wording of the document, to be issued in the United States after Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech to the U.N. Security Council Wednesday. The latest show of support from east Europe, grateful for American patronage during its fight against communism and Washington's strong support for expanding NATO, comes on the heels of a similar statement by eight European leaders. A Romanian Foreign Ministry official told Reuters the declaration of the so-called Vilnius 10 would be announced in the United States. A Bulgarian Foreign Ministry official added: "It is expected that it will be announced tomorrow at the end of the U.N. Security Council session."The Vilnius 10, a group of nations set up in 2000 to seek NATO membership, includes the seven new alliance members Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, as well as hopefuls Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. The declaration underlines east Europe's continuing belief that Washington remains the main guarantor of their security. Many countries in the region have already offered the United States assistance for a possible military strike on Iraq. Bulgaria said Tuesday it had received an official U.S. request to provide its airspace in case of war and specialized troops. In Lithuania, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the idea of a joint statement had been discussed for some time but said the final go-ahead hinged on Powell. "Everything depends on Powell's speech," she said. Powell is to address the Security Council at 1530 GMT on Wednesday, and has said he will show Iraq is concealing banned weapons programs from U.N. arms inspectors. The United States has threatened war if Iraq fails to disarm of weapons of mass destruction and is massing military forces in the Gulf. Iraq denies having such weapons. France and Germany insist Iraq must be disarmed peacefully but eight European countries -- including several European Union members -- issued a statement last week supporting U.S. policy. The leaders of the Czech Republic, Britain, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain published a joint article backing Bush and appealing for unity. Andrejs Pildegovis, a foreign policy advisor to Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, told Reuters: "We think the link between Europe and the United States should not be weakened by the Iraq crisis." Now, what was that again about unilateral action? Posted by: Steve 2003-02-04 |
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