Wednesday - August 20, 2008

Nato offers scant comfort for Georgia over conflict with Russia.  (watch the video guys)

How this is being covered over on this side of the pond.

Major divisions opened up between Nato members as European countries rejected an American proposal to suspend ties with Russia over its actions in Georgia.

By Adrian Blomfield in Tbilisi
Last Updated: 7:55AM BST 20 Aug 2008

The differences at an emergency summit in Brussels offered scant comfort for Georgia, which had hoped that its bid for Nato membership would be expedited.

While the alliance agreed to create a Nato-Georgia Commission which will support the country’s economic recovery, there was no mention of speeding up the membership process.

The summit was expected to present a united front against what Western countries say has been an act of unconscionable aggression against an important ally.

The United States had called for a formal suspension of ministerial meetings with Moscow by Nato countries, but European members made clear they favoured a much milder approach.

Even Britain, which has been broadly supportive of Washington’s robust condemnation of the Kremlin, chose to side with the Europeans in rejecting a proposal to freeze the Nato-Russia council, established in 2002 to boost relations between Moscow and the West.

“I am not one that believes that isolating Russia is the right answer to its misdemeanours,” said David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary.

“I think the right answer is hard-headed dialogue.”

Mr Miliband arrived in Georgia later to express Britain’s support for the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.

He lashed out at Russia for reneging on three separate pledges to withdraw from Georgia and missing a new deadline of noon on Monday to pull out, describing the Kremlin’s recalcitrance as “incomprehensible”.

“The world is asking Russia to live up to its commitments.”

Mr Miliband warned that the pressure on Russia would grow as it continued to defy international consensus and hinted that Moscow’s presence in international forums like the G8 was at risk.

But the foreign secretary denied that Nato had been too soft, claiming that it had been a major step to get all 26 countries, including those traditionally more supportive of Russia, to speak with one voice.

“People expected that there would be a flaking away on issues like Georgia’s territorial integrity but there hasn’t,” he said. “There hasn’t been an old Europe-new Europe divide.”

Mr Saakashvili praised both the foreign secretary and David Cameron, the leader of the opposition, for “setting the tone” in Europe with their robust support for Georgia.

With France and Germany, heavily dependent on Russian energy, urging caution and Italy broadly supporting the Kremlin’s actions, Nato issued a watered down statement expressing “grave concern”.

It told Russia that meetings could not take place while its troops remained in Georgia and said that relations could be damaged if a pull-out did not begin quickly.

“The Alliance is considering seriously the implications of Russia’s actions for the Nato-Russian relationship,” the statement read. “We have determined that we cannot continue with business as usual.”

The meeting prompted a mixture of scorn and outrage in Moscow, which continued to defy international calls for a full military withdrawal from Georgia.

Russia’s ambassador to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, derided the summit as a “mountain that gave birth to a mouse”.

“All of these threats that have been raining down on Russia turned out to be empty words,” he said.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, accused Nato of protecting a “criminal regime”.

Russia also pulled out of a Nato exercise in the Baltic Sea and cancelled a visit by a US naval frigate to the Kamchatka peninsula.

Some progress in alleviating the crisis was briefly visible after Georgia and Russia completed a prisoner-swap yesterday morning.

But an hour later, Russian troops smashed their way into the port of Poti, on Georgia’s Black Sea post. After blowing up the missile boat Dioskuria, the Georgian navy’s most sophisticated vessel, the Russians seized 21 Georgian servicemen and took them prisoner.

Blinded and handcuffed, the soldiers were then dragged to an unknown location. They also confiscated four American Humvees, used in a recent military exercise in Georgia, that were awaiting shipment back to the United States.

There was little visible evidence that a Russian withdrawal was underway, although officials in Moscow said it was and western correspondents were invited to see a small convoy of military vehicles leave the strategically important town of Gori.

But nearby, Russian soldiers continued to build trenches and in other towns there were no signs of a drawdown of forces.

Mr Lavrov, however, said that Russian troops could be pulled out of Georgia within three days although other officials refused to give a time frame.

The UN Security Council was due to meet to discuss a new draft resolution calling for respect of Georgia’s territorial integrity and the withdrawal of Russian troops.

http://tinyurl.com/6qdzz5

Posted by Drew458     on 08/20/2008 at 04:20 AM   
Filed Under: • International • UK • War-Stories •  
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