President George W. Bush rejects the affirmation of the new Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev, according to which Moscow will not accept the neighboring countries to become a part of a foreign military block. "Is a good thing to have democratic states as your neighbors" – declared the White House leader in an interview for the German newspaper "Die Welt". "Democracy is prone to the process of maintaining the peace. The Governments of those countries respects people wish and do not promote the way of war. Nobody's intention is to built strangers military basis in Ukraine. I said in several times the NATO troops will not stand long time on the territory of this country " – stressed Bush. "Democracies tend to be peaceful. Democracies that do the will of their people do not tend to wage war. No one intends to built foreign military basis on Ukraine's territory. I repeatedly stated that NATO troops will not be stationed for long periods on this country's territory" As for the Russian party's claims that most of the Ukrainians will pronounce themselves against joining NATO, the American President replied that the matter of the opinion poll can be brought to attention during the discussions, but that such testing can rend different results in time. "What we're now talking about is giving Ukraine a chance to achieve some criteria, to be able to reform its military, its economy and its political system. Only after that we can decide if this benefits from the support of most of the population" – Bush added. "There are countless situations when different states rejected the idea of joining NATO, at first. But this changed in time, because the governments of those states acted in the interest of people who chose them. That's why the Russians and the others who oppose this process must understand that, if in a referendum held at the appropriate time, the majority of the Ukrainian people will vote against joining NATO then their wish will be respected. But the decision should not be made outside the country but by the people themselves," the American leader stressed. In the end of the interview published in today's number of "Die Welt", President Bush wanted to reinforce that the matter taken into consideration at Bucharest Summit will not be that of Ukraine and Georgia's NATO adhesion, but that of the participation in the Action Plan, idea rejected by Germany and France.
(Source: Rador)
