voa标准英语2008-NATO Foreign Ministers Meet in Brussels
时间：2019-02-12 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2008年(十二月)
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, waves as she arrives at NATO headquarters in Brussels, 02 Dec 2008
The candidacies of Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO are a tricky 2 issue, with alliance members divided over what just how to proceed this week. The Bush administration earlier pushed for a quicker entry process for the two countries, but it says neither is ready to join right now. Both Georgia and Ukraine were given guarantees they would eventually join NATO, earlier this year.
At issue is the question of a formal road map for joining, known as a Membership Action Plan or map. France and Germany fear the MAP process may be side stepped, and in particular do not want to anger Russia which is opposed to the two countries joining NATO.
Daniel Korski, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, says the ministers may reach a compromise at the end of the meeting -- but there are no guarantees that will happen.
"The debate is likely to continue," Korski said. "There is a compromise proposal and the big issue is whether the Germans and the French are happy with that proposal. They will, after all, host the NATO 60th anniversary summit this spring and they'll want to make sure its a success. Certainly its going to be President Barack Obama's first meeting. So there's a lot of push to accept a compromise, but its not going to be certain in the first couple of hours or at least until the foreign ministers meeting is over.
European ministers are also expected to discuss in Brussels a U.N. request to send an emergency peacekeeping force to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been torn apart by fighting. France and Belgium are pushing for such a force, but other countries are skeptical 3 about the proposal.
- The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
- It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。
- I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
- He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。