VOA常速英语2008年-Bush Leaves for Eastern Europe

By Scott Stearns
White House
31 March 2008
 

President Bush is on his way to Ukraine for the start of a four-nation trip that also includes stops in Russia, Croatia and Romania where he will take part in a NATO summit. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story.

The president opens his trip in Ukraine, where U.S. National Security Advisor¹ Stephen Hadley says Mr. Bush will celebrate the country's democratic transition following the 2004 Orange Revolution.

"He will express his support for the aspirations² of the people of Ukraine to see their country take its rightful place within Europe, including within its transatlantic institutions, as Ukraine continues its process of reform," he said.

While in the Ukrainian capital, Mr. and Mrs. Bush will visit St. Sophia's Cathedral and a public school where they will see a student presentation on preventing HIV/AIDS.

On Wednesday, President Bush goes to Bucharest for the NATO summit where Hadley says the trans-Atlantic alliance will highlight how it is changing to meet the challenges of a new century.

"We expect NATO leaders to take decisions to enhance NATO's capabilities³ to deal with those challenges, including through enhancing NATO's special operations capabilities, as well as pursuing collective defense⁴ against cyber and missile attacks," said Hadley.

Afghanistan tops the agenda in Bucharest. NATO leaders will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as well as officials from the European Union and World Bank.

All 26 members of the alliance have troops in Afghanistan. But some have limited their deployments to safer areas where combat with Taliban militia⁵ is less likely. President Bush wants more NATO troops from more member states on the frontlines.

NATO leaders will discuss U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe and vote on expanding the alliance to include Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia. They will also vote on accepting applications from Georgia and Ukraine to join the alliance, a move that is opposed by Russia.

After the summit, Mr. and Mrs. Bush travel to Croatia where he will make remarks in Zagreb and take part in a working lunch with leaders from countries invited to join NATO.

President Bush wraps up his trip in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They will discuss the U.S. missile defense system, which Hadley says is meant to guard against attack from Iran, not Russia.

"The main issue there is to find a way, in concrete terms, to reassure⁶ Russia that the radar⁷ and missile installation that is planned in Poland and the Czech Republic are, as we say, about potential threats coming to Europe, coming to Russia, if you will, from the Middle East, and are not aimed at Russia," he said.

President Putin has previously⁸ discussed cooperating on radar monitoring potential missile attacks, which Hadley says could be part of an integrated defense system protecting Europe and Russia.

Before he left the White House, President Bush again called on Congress to pass a free trade agreement with Colombia and to expand the circumstances under which U.S. intelligence agents can monitor telephone and computer communications between the United States and suspected terrorists abroad without a warrant.

1 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

2 aspirations   

强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音

参考例句：

• I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。

3 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

6 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

7 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

8 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。