By KUNA
Paris : France announced here Tuesday that it would not support the candidacies of Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO as this move would affect the balance of the power relationship in Europe.
Speaking to France Inter radio, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said that France will not give the green light to the entry of Ukraine and Georgia to the NATO.
He stressed, “We are opposed to this because we think this is not a good response to the balance of the power relationship in Europe and between Europe and Russia.
“We want to have a dialogue on this subject with Russia and this is what the President of the Republic (Nicolas Sarkozy) will say in Bucharest tomorrow.
” For its part, the US supports granting Ukraine and Georgia NATO Membership Action Plans (MAP) at the NATO summit, scheduled for April 2-4 in Bucharest, whereas Russia is against such as a move, saying that it would threaten European security.
Meanwhile, Fillon said that he would not be calling for a for a vote of confidence in the Parliament later today to increase the number of French troops in Afghanistan, citing precedents of earlier governments which did not use this procedure when sending troops to that country.
Fillon told the radio that in 2001 Socialist Premier Lionel Jospin decided to send French forces to Afghanistan. And he explained he would not call for a vote of confidence in his government on a peacekeeping operation which had nothing to do with a declaration of war.
“Therefore I will use the line of argument of Jospin this afternoon,” Fillon indicated.
Frances Parliament is due later today to debate the decision to send more troops to Afghanistan while Sarkozy is expected to announce details of the French reinforcements to that country at the NATO Summit.
France currently has 1,600 French troops in Afghanistan deployed mostly in Kabul and the surrounding area, where this number is expected to increase by an additional 1,000 fresh troops.