NATO Summit Starts Wednesday In Bucharest

The NATO summit starts Wednesday in Bucharest with a working dinner of the Alliance heads of state and/or governments at the Romanian Cotroceni presidential palace.

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Summit works continue Thursday with the opening ceremony of the North Atlantic Council, followed by a working lunch of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.

Thursday afternoon, starting 3.15 pm, sees the reunion of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Friday, April 4, will be dedicated to the NATO-Ukraine and NATO-Russia Councils.

The NATO-Ukraine Council starts at 8.40 am, and Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will hold joint press statements after 10 pm.

The NATO-Russia Council starts Friday at 11.00 am, and the Council president is scheduled to hold press statements at 1.15 pm.

Part of the official delegations, including NATO secretary general Scheffer, U.S. president Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Afghan president Hamid Karzai and the Macedonian delegation, arrived in Bucharest Tuesday.

Most delegations are expected to arrive Wednesday after 5 pm, including French president Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Other delegations are expected around noon: German chancellor Angela Merkel and the U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who is expected to arrive around 3 pm.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Durao Barroso ios expected to arrive Thursday around 2 pm and will leave for Brussels later in the day, official sources told MEDIAFAX.

Moldovan president Vladimir Voronin will arrive in Bucharest on Thursday around 11 a.m.

If he attends the summit, Russian president Vladimir Putin is also expected to arrive Thursday.

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