KIEV, Ukraine -- Washington supports Ukraine's bid to join NATO, and the former Soviet republic is free to choose its allies regardless of what other nations want, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told Ukraine's president on Tuesday.
Both statements were aimed at Russia, which vehemently opposes NATO membership for its neighbors and is uncomfortable with their desire for greater economic and political integration with the West.Russia warned the U.S. against playing "under-the-carpet games" or building its ties with Ukraine at Moscow's expense.Biden met with President Viktor Yushchenko in Kiev, then said in a speech later that if Ukraine chose to join NATO, "which I believe you have, we strongly support that."Polls, however, have shown a majority of Ukrainians oppose NATO membership.Ukrainian officials were looking for signals that Washington's effort to improve ties with Moscow would not hurt Ukraine's push for integration with the West. Ukrainians also are looking for support as Russia acts to reassert some control over its former Soviet satellite states — most blatantly with its invasion of Georgia last year."We don't recognize, and I want to reiterate this, any spheres of influence. We do not recognize anyone else's right to dictate to any other country what alliance it should seek to belong to, or what relationships, bilateral relationships, you have," Biden said.President Barack Obama stressed at a July 6-8 summit in Moscow that "NATO seeks collaboration with Russia, not confrontation." Obama's speech was part of a White House effort to form a more productive relationship with Russia. Those ties reached post Cold-War lows after last year's Russian-Georgian war.Better ties with Moscow "will not come at Ukraine's expense," Biden said. "To the contrary, I believe it can actually benefit Ukraine. The more substantive relationship we have with Moscow, the more we can defuse the zero-sum thinking about our relations with Russia's neighbors."Welcoming Biden, Yushchenko called Ukraine a "European country where democracy rules.""We are going forward, we have chosen a European path," Yushchenko said.Biden was to meet Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko later Tuesday, as well as key opposition leaders who are also likely to challenge Yushchenko in January's presidential election.Yushchenko and Tymoshenko were allies in the 2004 Orange Revolution, which brought Yushchenko to power. They are now bitter foes, and the rivalry has hampered the government's response to the global economic crisis, which has hit Ukraine hard.That has allowed Viktor Yanukovych, the Moscow-backed presidential candidate who lost the 2004 election but is very popular in Ukraine's largely Russian-speaking east, to come back into the running for the January vote.Biden is also set to meet with Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the reformist former parliament speaker, who plans to run for president.Russia was watching Biden's visit to its former Soviet backyard with keen interest, suspicious that Washington is out to block any moves to bring Ukraine and Georgia back into Moscow's orbit.Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told a weekly news conference that Moscow is "not usurping or monopolizing anyone's rights," and that all nations are free to choose their partners.But in a warning to Washington, he added, "It's important that this be done transparently, without under-the-carpet games and not at the expense of others' interests."He also suggested the U.S. should keep Ukraine's traditional ties with Russia in mind, saying the regional context and "historical specifics" should be taken into account.The U.S. has repeatedly denied that it seeks to dictate who should rule in any democratic country.Biden on Wednesday visits Georgia, where the opposition is demanding President Mikhail Saakashvili resign over his handling of the war with Russia and what they say is his retreat from democracy.Saakashvili has vowed not to resign before the end of his term in 2013.The Russian army quickly crushed the Georgian army last August after Georgia attacked its own breakaway province of South Ossetia to try to bring it back under control.Thousands of Russian troops remain in South Ossetia and another separatist-held Georgian enclave, Abkhazia, and Russia has recognized both regions as independent nations.Washington said it did not support Georgia's attempt to retake South Ossetia by force.Saakashvili, who had committed thousands of troops for U.S.-led missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, pleaded for military support from Washington during the fighting, but the U.S. did not intervene.
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