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Russia Far From Becoming NATO Member, US Officials Say
The United States, while stepping up efforts to woo Russia as a member of Europe, appeared cautious in bringing its Cold-war foe into the fold of European allies as Bush administration officials said on Sunday that it is still "premature" for Moscow to become a NATO member.
U.S. Secretary of State Collen Powell, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," said that Europe and the Bush administration "want to do everything" they can to "encourage Russia to become a part of a broader Europe," but that in no way means Russia will be allowed a membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the near future.
"I think it's premature to even suggest something like that," Powell said, adding that "there are certain membership standards that you have to meet if you want to be accepted."
Powell said this just after U.S. President Bush wound up his first European tour which was climaxed by a summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovenia on Saturday.
During the meeting, Powell said, Putin did not put out the request that Russian be admitted into the 19-member alliance. Russian was not among the nine countries that have officially expressed their aspirations for accession to NATO, he added.
In the show talk, Powell reaffirmed Bush's latest message that NATO will continue to expand but that move poses no threat to Moscow.
Russia, however, has opposed the further expansion of NATO that would include the three Baltic nations -- part of the former Soviet Union, seeing that maneuver as NATO's plan to nip away the buffer zones Moscow needs for its security.
Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's National Security Advisor, tried on Sunday to soothe Russia's fear by offering a pinky prospect of having Moscow "fully integrated" into Europe.
"Should Russia make important right choices about its future -- about democracy, about free markets, about peaceful relations with its neighbors -- Russia will be fully integrated into Europe. I have no doubt about that," Rice said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
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