By , Associated Press | April 2, 2008
NEPTUN, Romania — President Bush urged NATO allies today to recognize the seriousness of the anti-Taliban mission in Afghanistan and step up with more troops for the fight.
"We expect our NATO allies to shoulder the burden necessary to succeed," Mr. Bush said, appearing alongside President Basescu of Romania at a news conference on a wind-whipped Black Sea beach.
Mr. Bush welcomed recent announcements by at least 10 countries, including France, Germany, Norway, and Poland, to provide additional troops to the 47,000-strong NATO force in Afghanistan. He stepped gingerly around a two-year dispute between member nations, including Britain, Canada, and America, that have combat troops in Afghanistan's most dangerous areas, and those such as Germany, Italy, and Spain that are limiting their forces to the more stable north and west.
Mr. Bush showed some understanding of those countries' reluctance to participate on the front lines and in large numbers. Still, he said the outcome in Afghanistan is too important to turn away. Failure, he said, could produce a safe haven again for terrorists and destroy an aspiring democracy.
"Nations need to take this mission seriously," the president said. "It's worth it for our own security and it's worth it for the cause of peace."
White House officials are hoping for a wave of additional announcements during the three-day NATO summit that begins tonight in Bucharest, the Romanian capital. Mr. Bush expressed cautious hope. "We'll see how it goes," he said. "That's what summits are for."
Mr. Basescu, standing with Mr. Bush after their talks at this gated seaside complex of villas amid evergreens, endorsed his Mr. Bush's call. Romania has indicated it plans to increase its presence in Afghanistan; the specifics have yet to be announced.
"Any lack of success of NATO in Afghanistan will diminish dramatically the credibility of our organization," he said through a translator.
America is the biggest contributor of troops in Afghanistan, with 17,000 in the NATO-led force — to go up by 3,200 Marines — and 14,000 in an American-led contingent in eastern Afghanistan that is conducting training and counterinsurgency operations.
A standoff is expected at the alliance meeting over the aspirations of two former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, to start the process of joining NATO. Russia, who is not in NATO, vehemently objects. America already is in a bitter dispute with Moscow over American plans to build a Europe-based missile defense system.
Mr. Bush is scheduled to meet President Putin twice this week — during the summit and then on their own on Sunday, in the Russian resort town of Sochi. There has been much speculation about the state of American-Russian relations and how much progress the two leaders can make in improving those ties.
Mr. Bush refrained from making any bold or optimistic predictions. He focused instead on the value of having a "heart-to-heart" talk and a chance to say farewell — Mr. Putin's successor takes over in May — and thanks to a man with whom he has worked on the world stage for more than seven years.
"I'm not going to set any kind of expectations. I guess you are," Mr. Bush told a reporter who asked about it. "You call it a diplomatic train wreck. I call it an opportunity to sit down and have a good, frank discussion again. And we'll see what happens."
Mr. Bush said he will make clear to Mr. Putin that "the Cold War is over and Russia is not our enemy."
White House officials have raised expectations that the Sochi talks could produce a breakthrough on missile defense as part of a broader "strategic framework" to define the relationship in several areas after Messrs. Bush and Putin leave office. The meeting is expected to be their last. Mr. Bush's term ends in January.
Before the visit to Romania's coast, Mr. Bush had the pre-summit spotlight in Bucharest virtually to himself for a speech intended to set the stage for the meeting.
Addressing 500 political and business leaders for about a half-hour, he forcefully and unapologetically made his case on all top NATO items:
— the need to defy Russia and allow Ukraine and Georgia to start the NATO admission process.
— European backing for building the new missile shield.
— help from NATO nations to boost their efforts in Afghanistan.
Mr. Bush also was seeing NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer before the summit's official tonight launch at a Cotroceni Palace dinner.
In asking for larger Afghanistan commitments, Mr. Bush noted in the speech that Osama bin Laden in a recent audiotape had renewed threats to strike Europe. "If we do not defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan, we will face them on our own soil," Mr. Bush said. "Innocent civilians in Europe and North America will pay the price."
On missile defense, Mr. Bush said the plans to base the shield in NATO members Poland and the Czech Republic were critical to defending against a "real and, in my opinion, urgent" threat posed by nations such as Iran. He said American intelligence shows that "with continued foreign assistance," Iran could test an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching America and all of Europe "if it should choose to do so."
"Today, we have no way to defend Europe against such an emerging threat, so we must deploy ballistic missile defenses that can help protect," Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Bush sought to counter misgivings from France and Germany on NATO expansion. Such nations worry that opening the process to Ukraine and Georgia could sour relations with Moscow, an important energy supplier. But Mr. Bush said a larger NATO is not a threat to Russia. "NATO membership must remain open to all of Europe's democracies that seek it, and are ready to share in the responsibilities of NATO membership," he said.
With nine ex-Soviet bloc countries already in the alliance, Moscow is sensitive to any further loss of influence in the former Soviet sphere. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the proposed expansion "artificial — and completely unnecessary" to today's anti-terror battles.
"What's happening will not (go) unanswered, I assure you," he said today before the State Duma in Moscow. "But we will respond to this pragmatically, not like a small child in school, who is offended by someone and slams the door and runs crying from the classroom."
On Iraq, Mr. Bush said America "will not abandon our friends in the fight against terror and extremism."
He faces another Iraq milestone after his return from Europe next week. The top American commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, the American ambassador, Ryan Crocker, are report to Congress on the status of the war April 8 and 9.
The president is expected to make an announcement on troop levels shortly after their testimony. He is expected to endorse their recommendation that any new decreases should wait until at least fall, and only after officials ascertain that further drawdowns would not compromise security gains.
