3,000 delegates expected at NATO summit in Bucharest

Around 3,000 official delegates and around 3,500 journalists are expected at the NATO summit, which will be hosted in Bucharest between April 2 and April 4, with the US delegation alone numbering 1,000 people. The summit entails rental of hundreds of cars, closing advertising contracts, acquiring furniture, including round tables where talks are traditionally held. This could also mean three days off for state-employed people, which could coincide with the start of Romania’s summer season. Delegations from NATO member states, from the 23 member states part of the Partnership for Peace, as well as from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Jordan, Afghanistan, the UN, the World Bank and the EU, will attend the NATO summit in Bucharest, Victor Micula, Secretary of State with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one of the members of the committee in charge of organising the summit, told MEDIAFAX yesterday. Participants include George W. Bush, Nicolas Sarkozy, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Angela Merkel, Hamid Karzai, Viktor Yushchenko and, possibly, Vladimir Putin. Also attending will be the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the president of the World Bank, as well as Jose Manuel Barroso, Benita Ferrero Waldner and Javier Solana.