NATO Ministers Weigh Response to Georgia Crisis

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NATO Ministers Weigh Response to Georgia Crisis

Alliance meets in Brussels to reconsider relationship with Moscow

By David I. McKeeby
Staff Writer

Washington -- NATO’s 26 foreign ministers will meet in an emergency session to underline the alliance’s commitment to Georgia's future and weigh future relations with Russia in the wake of its air and ground attack on the emerging South Caucasus democracy.

“Right now, we’re focused very heavily on getting Russian forces out of Georgia, getting the cease-fire to hold, helping the Georgian people,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an August 17 interview on NBC Television’s Meet the Press. “Georgia will rebuild. Russia’s reputation may not be rebuilt.”

Rice gave a series of interviews after she briefed President Bush on her August 13-15 visits to France and Georgia and before setting off for Brussels, Belgium, where NATO ministers will meet August 19 to discuss a planned international monitoring mission and reconstruction aid, as well as to formulate a united diplomatic response to Russia’s military intervention.

“Russia seems to want to have it both ways. It wants to be a part of these institutions that are so essential to the international economy and the international order, and on the other hand, it wants to engage in kind of Soviet-style behavior of intimidating and invading [its] neighbors,” Rice said on CBS Television’s Face the Nation.

Russia cannot use “disproportionate force” against Georgia and still be welcomed by international institutions, Rice said. “Russia will pay a price.”

In Brussels, expect “a very clear message of solidarity to Georgia,” says NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero.

“We will reaffirm the commitment in [the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania] and the meeting is also expected to approve a package of measures to support Georgia,” Romero said, including support for 100 new international monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as well as a team of NATO experts to help Georgian officials assess damage to military installations caused by Russian forces.

NATO already has barred a Russian ship from taking part in an upcoming multinational exercise. Ministers in Brussels are expected to conduct a full review of the complete spectrum of NATO-Russia cooperative efforts to consider further cuts -- even in essential areas of counterterrorism, counternarcotics and missile defense.

“We’re going to take our time and assess what further consequences there should be to the relationship,” Rice said.

But officials have not fully closed the door to Russia, and they do not plan to dissolve the NATO-Russia Council -- a consultative body established in 2002 to improve East-West security cooperation.

“We don't want to destroy the NATO-Russia Council, but Russia's actions have called into question the premise of the NATO-Russia relationship,” U.S. Ambassador Kurt Volker told Reuters on August 16.

As alliance members consider the future of their relationship with Moscow, they will be watching Russia’s pledged withdrawal from Georgia under the terms of the European Union-brokered cease-fire. “I think the allies are going to be firm that this was a violation of Georgia's territorial integrity,” Romero said.

The alliance will express support for an international diplomatic effort to resolve differences over Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

“Negotiations will begin from the premise that the territorial integrity of Georgia must be respected, that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are within the internationally recognized boundaries of Georgia, and that we will proceed from the basis of [U.N.] Security Council resolutions that recognize that,” Rice said.

The trans-Atlantic alliance also will discuss its pledge at the 2008 Bucharest summit on future membership for Georgia and Ukraine, a move that drew strong criticism from Moscow and that many experts consider a contributing factor in the Kremlin’s decision to launch military operations. (See “U.S. Supports NATO Membership for Ukraine and Georgia.”)

“Georgia is a respected partner and friend and one day Georgia will join NATO,” NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters August 12 following an ambassador-level meeting of the body’s North Atlantic Council, which condemned Russia’s attack on Georgia as an “excessive, disproportionate use of force.”

Following the NATO meeting, Rice will travel to Warsaw, Poland, where she will sign a formal agreement for the country to host 10 U.S. missile-defense interceptors, a key component of a planned European-based limited missile-defense system that also attracted strong opposition from Moscow. Poland was among several former Soviet bloc states to rally to Georgia’s side immediately following Russia’s military incursion.

“If the Russians intended this as intimidation, they’ve done nothing but harden the attitudes of the small states around them,” Rice said on Fox News Channel’s Fox News Sunday. “I think the Russians have made a significant mistake here.”

Source: http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2008/August/20080818163506idybeekcm5.462283e-02.html?CP.rss=true