Senior Administration Official Holds a White House Background Briefing

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Senior Administration Official Holds a White House Background Briefing

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL HOLDS BACKGROUND BRIEFING ON THE PRESIDENT'S MEETINGS AT NATO, AS RELEASED BY THE WHITE HOUSE

FEBRUARY 22, 2005

SPEAKERS: SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL

[*] SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good afternoon. I thought I would just give you a little bit of background on what happened this morning in the two meetings: first was the meeting with Ukrainian President Yushchenko; the second was the summit with the 26 leaders. And I'll just run through the highlights and then be happy to answer your questions. President Yushchenko made his first ever visit to NATO today. I believe it was the first time that President Bush had met President Yushchenko. They had about a 15 -- a 10 to 15-minute bilateral meeting preceding the NATO meeting. Of course, President Bush congratulated him on his victory in the election and the triumph of democracy in Ukraine.

In the larger meeting with the NATO leaders, the President spoke early in the conversation, responding to President Yushchenko, and said that NATO had always been an institution that welcomed new members and had its door open to new members, but in the case of Ukraine, of course, Ukraine, as a European democracy, could have the aspirations for a future relationship with NATO, but it would have to meet the requirements of NATO membership. And the President used the word, I think he did in his press conference, as well, that we're a performance-based organization. So he suggested that the focus now should be on the partnership action plan that we developed w...

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