For the first time since NATO's creation, the USA was defeated at an alliance summit with regard to a priority goal it had set—the inclusion of Ukraine and Georgia in NATO. That is the most notable fact about the Bucharest Summit that history will record. Yet most Western media reports surprisingly omitted this momentous failure. The summit also revealed increased tensions between the US and Russia accompanied by new intra-European divisions, which narrowed the EU's scope for action. The EU is indeed paralysed by a new East–West crisis whose most visible manifestation was Moscow's recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
