Bush makes trouble in Kiev
AS PRESIDENT BUSH'S second term winds down, this is no time for him to be making trouble for his successor. Yet that is exactly what he was doing yesterday in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. In an appearance alongside that country's pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko, Bush declared that NATO should begin the process of admitting Ukraine and Georgia as members.
It is understandable that anti-Russian leaders in both of these former Soviet republics want to join NATO. They have bitter memories of past domination by Moscow and suffer today from Russian bullying and blackmailing. In Ukraine, however, the government's pursuit of NATO membership is starkly at odds with popular opinion. Opposition runs especially high among Ukraine's huge Russian minority. But the main reason not to grant NATO membership action plans to Ukraine and Georgia is to avoid new conflict with Russia. This is why Germany and France oppose the idea.
Bush is planning to sign a so-called strategic framework with Russia's outgoing President Vladimir Putin when the two hold their final summit Sunday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Codifying areas of agreement while both presidents are still in office makes sense. But when Bush said in Kiev that he wants the NATO accession process to start immediately for Ukraine and Georgia - "no trade-offs, period," he said - he contradicted the basic premise of a strategic partnership.
Such partnerships can only be based on trade-offs and consideration for each other's interests. A crucial Russian natural gas pipeline crosses Ukraine; components of Russian nuclear missiles are produced in Ukrainian plants; and Russia's Black Sea Fleet is based in Ukraine. So Russia won't accept a move by Ukraine into US-led NATO without getting any concessions in return. After seven years in power, Bush ought to have learned that there is no such thing as diplomacy without quid pro quos. 