BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

April 21, 2005

NATO and Rice Use Carrot and Stick With Former Soviet States

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

VILNIUS, Lithuania, April 21 - NATO acted officially today to open discussions with Ukraine about becoming a member of the Western military alliance, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with opposition leaders from Belarus who favor the ouster of the Russian-backed government next door. At the same time, NATO reached an accord with Russia that foresees expanded military cooperation.

Taken together, the three steps reflected the mixed and contradictory state of American-Russian relations right now. The Russians have been very unhappy about American criticism of the state of their democracy, and about the expansion of American influence in countries on their borders. At the same time, the Bush administration has been strenuously trying to reassure the Russians, and President Bush is planning to cary that message when he visits Moscow next month.

Ms. Rice, who had previously declared that Belarus was the last dictatorship in Europe, warned that it should not conduct a "sham election" next year because its conduct would be "watched by the international community" much as the election last year in Ukraine, a former partner of Russia's, was watched and deemed fraudulent, helping to lead to revolution there.

The Belarus opposition leaders said after meeting with Ms. Rice that they would use "mass pressure for change" on the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko. Ms. Rice cautioned that she was not suggesting any particular way for them to oust him.

In Belarus, Nikolai Cherginets, who heads the Commission on International Affairs and National Security in the upper house of the Belarussian Parliament, expressed sharp, even mocking disapproval of Ms. Rice and her remarks.

He called the secretary's description of Belarus as Europe's last dictatorship "an appeal to overthrow the administration of a sovereign state, and this is a reminder of the cold war." He then cautioned against taking Ms. Rice too seriously, saying, "A woman euphoric with power is a dangerous creature, but we should not overrate her."

In Moscow earlier in the week, Ms. Rice heard complaints from officials and radio show callers that Russians fear that the United States is trying to surround Russia with allies and in some cases military forces on its flanks. She told reporters that Russians seemed to be mired in a "19th century" view of the world.

To ease Russian concerns over the talks with Ukraine, which could lead to its joining the alliance in three or more years, NATO also moved today to sign a "status of forces" agreement with Russia that would allow for the expansion of joint military exercises on Russian soil, possibly for future peacekeeping operations in various trouble spots.

There have been a few such joint exercises focusing on dealing with emergencies or humanitarian crises, but American and NATO officials said the new accord would widen the possibilities, making it easier to transport foreign troops across Russian soil to interdict narcotics and arms smuggled from Afghanistan and other places.

Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, met with NATO foreign ministers here in the capital of Lithuania, itself once a state in the Soviet Union but now a NATO member, and he pronounced himself pleased with the Russia-NATO accord.

"The issues were dealt without extraneous ideology," Mr. Lavrov said, though he added a note of displeasure over Ms. Rice's meeting with the Belarus opposition leaders, saying Russia did not support "regime change" there.

Ms. Rice flew back to Washington this evening after a three-day trip, which included her first visit to Russia as secretary of state. Part of her task was to prepare for President Bush's visit to Moscow next month for the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, but that event is also stirring controversy.

Many world leaders will join Mr. Bush in Russia, but Lithuania, for example, is boycotting on ground that the celebration effectively heralds the beginning of Russia's grip on Eastern Europe and the cold war tensions that followed.

The NATO decision on Ukraine was set in motion after the presidential election victory of Viktor A. Yushchenko in the so-called "orange revolution" there last year. His coming to power was preceded by an uprising that installed a new pro-Western regime in Georgia and it was followed this year by an uprising in Kyrgyzstan, another former Soviet state.

President Yushchenko pressed the case for Ukraine's joining NATO during a visit to Washington in April, when he called on the White House and addressed Congress. Mr. Bush backed the request, but this week American officials said that accession would not be easy or rapid. Ukraine used to have one of the largest armies in Europe, but it has recently shriveled.

"NATO is not just a club," a senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "You've got to be able to contribute."

He said that before it could join NATO, Ukraine would need to demonstrate that civilian control over its military and its democracy in general would last, and that its force structure was reformed so that it had effective troops and was not "top heavy" with generals.

The NATO discussions encompassed other issues, including a decision by the alliance to be ready, if asked by the African Union, to transport additional forces to the Darfur region of Sudan, where thousands have died in a civil war and many more have been driven from their homes.

But the NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said that any troop support would involve "planning and logistical support" and not "boots on the ground."

The United States has failed to broker a Darfur peace agreement and get adequate relief to the victims of what it has called genocide but remains committed to getting more outside forces there.

"We all have a responsibility to do what we can to alleviate suffering in Darfur and to create conditions in which humanitarian aid can get in," Ms. Rice said.

In addition, Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said there had been a discussion - purely hypothetical, he said - about the possibility of eventually sending NATO forces to other areas, such as peacekeepers for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ms. Rice pressed for a broader NATO role, or at least a discussion of such a role. "We intend to use NATO more and more effectively as a trans-Atlantic security forum," she said.

But the French foreign minister, Michel Barnier, warned against turning NATO into "the world's policeman" and taking on too many tasks outside Europe.

C.J. Chivers contributed reporting from Moscow for this article.

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/21/international/europe/21cnd-diplo.html?hp&ex=1114142400&en=626490e12a80ae59&ei=5094&partner=homepage