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 05 September 2008 05:45 BST

Nato denies Ukraine and Georgia but backs Albania and Croatia

Thursday, 03 Apr 2008 14:42
Nato denied membership to Ukraine and Georgia

In Focus 

Nato has claimed that it will not yet offer membership to the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia.

However, Albania and Croatia were invited today to become members of the international military alliance.

Nato secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer claimed that despite Thursday's rejection, Ukraine and Georgia would one day join the alliance.

"We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO. That is quite something," he said.

Macedonia's invitation was also initially refused after protests in Greece over the country's name.

During negotiations this week US president George Bush had called for Georgia and Ukraine to be allowed to join, but France and Germany blocked the move claiming that it would further anger Russia, which opposes Nato's eastward expansion.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy said that he would make a decision regarding the military alliance at the end of this year, suggesting that it would return to the military command it left in 1966.

Mr Sarkozy also said that hundreds of extra French troops would be sent to Afghanistan.End of story


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