NATO freezes regular contacts with Russia by Martina Janeckova

On Tuesday August 19, 2008 NATO agreed to freeze regular contacts with Russia until Moscow had withdrawn its troops from Georgia. The statement did not explicitly refer to a U. S. pressure to break contact within the NATO-Russia Council (NRC). NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that “as long as Russian forces are basically occupying a large part of Georgia I cannot see a NATO-Russia Council convening at whatever level. But we don’t have intention to close all doors in our communication with Russia.” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov accused NATO of bias and support for a “criminal regime” in Tbilisi.
The fighting broke out on August 7, when Tbilisi tried to regain control over South Ossetia. Russia, which is supporting the separatists, launched a counter-offensive that extended also into Georgia. On Tuesday 19, a convoy of Russian tanks and armored vehicles left the strategically important Georgian town of Gori, but Russian officials said the main withdrawal would not happen for three more days. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner joined the call for Russia to withdraw but said he was starting to doubt Moscow would honor its pledge to pull back. Georgia’s foreign minister Eka Tkeshelashvili called for international peacekeepers to replace Russian units in South Ossetia. Supporters of Tbilisi said that the conflict strengthened the argument for Georgia to join NATO as soon as possible but U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told there was no plan to accelerate NATO discussions. She also denied that USA want to isolate Russia and rejected suggestions that tougher actions on Moscow had been blocked by some European states afraid of the reaction of the major energy supplier.

by Martina Janeckova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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