NATO likely to defer Ukraine

Quote: As next week’s NATO summit in Bucharest draws nearer, Ukraine’s chances to be accepted into a Membership Action Plan (MAP) have grown slim, with little time left for NATO member states to reach consensus, experts said.
The likely scenario involves NATO delaying a MAP invitation to Ukraine and Georgia, while reaffirming the alliance’s support for both countries’ integration bids.
“Most NATO members support MAP for Ukraine,” said Oleksandr Sushko, director of the Center for Peace, Conversion and Foreign Policy of Ukraine, a Kyiv-based think tank. “However, there has to be a consensus of all the member states.”
French and German leaders are leading the resistance to a Ukrainian MAP, in what some analysts are describing as the first time a non-NATO state, the Russian Federation, may impede a NATO decision through proxies, violating a key NATO principle of not giving veto influence to non-members.
“That principle could be breached for the first time in the alliance’s history, if Berlin and Paris lead an action to block the Georgian and Ukrainian MAPs at the Bucharest summit in deference to Russia’s opposition,” Vladimir Socor, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, wrote for the Eurasia Daily Monitor.

Full article: http://www.kyivpost.com/nation/28695

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