OSCE meeting tackles EU and NATO enlargement

For President Ion Iliescu and Premier Adrian Nastase, the OSCE reunion in Bucharest was an opportunity to meet several outstanding political leaders. They both had talks with US State Secretary Colin Powell, Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar and the Foreign ministers of the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

US State Secretary Colin Powell yesterday stated that US President George W. Bush was committed to NATO expansion at the Alliance summit to be held in Prague next year.

President Ion Iliescu and US State Secretary Colin Powell had talks and an official lunch at Cotroceni Palace, which was also attended by Premier Adrian Nastase, ministers Ioan Mircea Pascu and Mircea Geoana.

The main issue was the enlargement of the Northern-Atlantic Alliance at the Prague summit in 2002. Several aspects regarding the international situation and the bilateral Romanian-US ties were also approached during the discussions.

Colin Powell at the end of talks said that the US administration appreciated Romania’s support for the international fight against terrorism, which proved the maturity of the Bucharest Government and its will to be part of the international community.

Powell encouraged Romania to further implement economic reforms and the plan of action for NATO joining. “I think that all these things will help the heads of NATO countries to approve the alliance enlargement next year, but we cannot nominate any particular country for accession yet,” Powell said.

Premier Adrian Nastase yesterday met with his Spanish counterpart. Premier Aznar said that Spain, which will hold the EU chairmanship next year, would mainly aim to boost the EU enlargement and unification process.

“To Spain and to me as well, Romania is a political part of European reunification, irrespective of the date when this accession is to take place. There is no possibility that any applicant country should be marginalised,” the Spanish Premier said.