Speaking at NATO's summit in Bucharest, Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the the granting of Membership Action Plans (MAPs) to Ukraine and Georgia would have to await further dialogue. But he added a sweetener, saying the alliance had agreed the two countries "will become members of NATO."“Today, we make clear that we support these countries' applications for MAP," he said. "Therefore, we will now begin a period of intensive engagement with both at a high political level to address the questions still outstanding pertaining to their MAP applications. We have asked [NATO] foreign ministers to make a first assessment of progress at their December 2008 meeting."
Despite the postponed decision, pro-NATO forces in Ukraine and Georgia celebrated the announcement, which offered stronger-than-expected support for their entry bids.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said, "I think we should be very happy," and added that it appeared as though Georgia had "suddenly jumped over the technical stage" of an action plan with the promise of full membership. "MAP is not as important when you have a commitment to accept us as members," he said. "Here we got a 100-percent guarantee, at least formally, for membership. That's very unusual." [More]
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