Category: Georgia: Abkhaz

Georgia: NATO

    Georgia And U.S. Will Weigh Military Aid In Upcoming Conference
    (Bloomberg.com)…Ken Fireman, Bloomberg News, Oct 9, 2008
    …Speaking to reporters today after a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Budapest, Kezerashvili said his country will submit a detailed request for military aid at the Washington meeting.

    U.S. Wants NATO Membership Plan For Georgia This Year
    (Reuters.com)…Reuters, Oct 9, 2008
    The United States is pushing NATO to put Georgia on a formal track to alliance membership in December, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday, despite concerns about the country’s security after its war with Russia.

Fall-Out: Russia’s conflict with Georgia

 Georgia War Shows ‘Weak’ Russia, U.S. Official Says,(Washington Post)…Glenn Kessler

Russia’s conflict with Georgia is the sign of a “weak” Russian nation, not a newly assertive one, and Moscow now has put its place in the world order at risk, the top U.S. diplomat for relations with the country said in an interview yesterday.

 

    China’s Unease With Russian Actions Strains Ties
    (Wall Street Journal)…Gregory L. White, Andrew Higgins and Andrew Osborn
    Russia’s efforts to redraw the map of the Caucasus received a frosty reception from China, a further sign of how Moscow’s conflict with Georgia is scrambling diplomatic alignments in place since the end of the Cold War.

Getting it right

Charlie Wilson’s Peace, (Washington Post), Aug 28, 2008, pg.19…by Charles Wilson

…Defense Secretary Robert Gates was spot-on when he said last month, “The Foreign Service is not the Foreign Legion, and the U.S. military should never be mistaken for a Peace Corps with guns.” We’ve got to get this right.

The writer, a Democrat, represented Texas’s 2nd District in the U.S. House from 1973 to 1997. He is an adviser to the Center for U.S. Global Engagement.

Clashes and Call for Cease Fire

Clashes With Rebels Deepen War Fears, (Washington Post)…Unattributed, August 8, 2008, Pg. 11

The capital of Georgia’s separatist region of South Ossetia came under heavy fire early Friday, just hours after Georgia’s president declared a unilateral cease-fire, news reports and the rebel government said.

“The assault is coming from all directions,” said a brief statement on the separatist government’s Web site. Officials in South Ossetia and Georgia could not be reached by telephone by the Associated Press for confirmation early Friday.

The Interfax news agency, reporting from the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, cited Vladimir Ivanov, an official of the peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia, as saying the fire included salvos by truck-launched Grad missiles.

A week of clashes and escalating tension in South Ossetia has raised fears of an all-out war that could draw in Russia, which has close ties with South Ossetia’s separatist leadership.

At Russia’s request, the United Nations Security Council began meeting in emergency session starting at 11 p.m. Thursday in New York.

Ambassador Recalled

Ambassador To Russia Recalled, (New York Times)…Anne Barnard, New York Times
July 11, 2008, Pg. 8

Georgia recalled its ambassador to Russia for consultations after the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that a Russian military aircraft had flown over a breakaway, pro-Moscow region of Georgia this week. The flight, and Georgia’s response, further escalated tensions between Russia and Georgia, a former Soviet republic, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital.