Русская версияNATO's 26 foreign ministers toughened their stance against Russia
at an emergency meeting called by the United States on Tuesday,
Aug.
19.
"We have determined that we cannot continue with business as
usual," the 26 NATO foreign ministers said in a joint statement
following talks in Brussels. "We call on Russia to demonstrate --
both in word and deed -- its continued commitment to the principles
upon which we agreed to base our relationship."
Russia is not respecting the peace plan agreed by President Dmitry
Medvedev, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Tuesday
after a meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers.
"The future of our relations with Russia will depend on the
concrete actions Russia will take to abide by the words of
President Dmitri Medvedev... which is not happening at the moment,"
he told reporters.
The NATO foreign ministers also agreed to create an additional
NATO-Georgia Commission to strengthen relations with Tbilisi.
Scheffer said the commission would function in a similar manner to
an 11-year-old arrangement with Ukraine but would not prejudge
Georgia's prospects of entering the alliance.
Dialogue remains important
NATO, however, seemed unlikely to take drastic action, such as
cutting off dialogue with Moscow.
Russia needs to learn that it cannot use force to change the
borders of its neighbors, British Foreign Minister David
Miliband said ahead of the meeting.
However, "I'm not one who believes that isolating Russia is the
right answer to its misdemeanors. I think that the right response
is hard-headed engagement," he said, without specifying how he
would want this put into action.
Russia agrees to monitoring
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Russia has not yet left Georgia as promised
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will
immediately dispatch 20 unarmed observers to Tbilisi, after Russia
reportedly agreed to the monitoring mission Tuesday morning.
The organization's team will supplement the current nine OSCE
observers already based in South Ossetia, Finnish Foreign Minister
Alexander Stubb said, speaking on the sidelines of the NATO
meeting.
The OSCE had previously said it wants to send an additional 80
monitors to the area in the next few days. Both Russia and Georgia
are members of the OSCE. Georgia has also agreed to the mission.
Germany demands troop pullout
On Aug. 8, Georgia launched a military offensive against its
breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russia has long provided
military support to the province, which wants complete independence
from Georgia.
Moscow put a stop to the Georgian operation, sending troops, tanks
and warplanes into the area. Both sides have signed a ceasefire
agreement, but the situation remains tense and there were no signs
Tuesday that Russia was withdrawing its troops as promised.
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The US organized the emergency NATO meeting
Germany has called on Russia to pull back its troops "at least from
the heart of Georgia," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier said Tuesday as he arrived at the NATO meeting.
Steinmeier did not say exactly what he meant by the "heart of
Georgia" but the reference could be taken to mean all Georgian
territory apart from the two separatist regions of South Ossetia
and Abkhazia.
"The most important thing at the moment is to consolidate the
situation which is still fragile and to bring about a lasting
ceasefire," Steinmeier said as he arrived for a meeting of NATO
foreign ministers in Brussels.
Russia has engaged to withdraw its troops from Georgia but there
was no sign on Tuesday of that happening, the Georgian Interior
Ministry said.
Georgia remains on NATO path
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Georgia and Russia have agreed to a ceasefire
Germany's coordinator for Russian politics, Andreas Schockenhoff,
reiterated Tuesday that Germany will not change its position on
Georgia's eventual membership into NATO.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it clear to both sides that
Germany will support the Membership Action Plan extended to Georgia
in April, a step towards Georgia's eventual membership into NATO.
"Georgia can become a member of NATO," Schockenhoff said in an
interview in Tuesday's edition of the
Berliner Zeitung
newspaper. "Russia does not have veto rights."
But Schockenhoff also reiterated that Georgia will not become a
NATO member until it has resolved the issue of its internal
borders.
(Deutsche Welle)
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