05 September 2008 - 13H26
Cheney backs Ukraine's NATO bid
During a visit to Kiev on Friday, US Vice President Dick Cheney expressed support for Ukraine's bid to join NATO and urged Ukraine's deeply divided prime minister and president to unite.
US Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday expressed support for Ukraine's bid to join NATO following talks with President Viktor Yushchenko, saying no country outside of the alliance should have a veto.
"Ukrainians have a right to choose whether they wish to join NATO, and NATO has a right to invite Ukraine to join the alliance when we believe they are ready and that the time is right. No outside country has a veto," Cheney said.
"The allies agreed in Bucharest that Ukraine will eventually be able to enter, and that is the way it stands today," Cheney said, in an apparent reference to Russia, which has opposed ex-Soviet Ukraine's membership bid.
Cheney, who spoke to reporters after the meeting in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, also recalled how US President George W. Bush had hailed Ukraine's support for NATO missions, during a recent visit here.
"Ukraine is the only non-NATO country to support every NATO mission from Afghanistan to Kosovo," he said.
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