The FINANCIAL — "The option of keeping Russian forces in South Ossetia and Abkhazia is not acceptable," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in an interview with London's Financial Times newspaper.
“What alarms us is that Georgia’s regime tries to interpret the assumed obligations for not using the force against Abkhazia and South Ossetia as valid only provided that everyone recognizes South Ossetia and Abkhazia an integral part of Georgia. It is the direct retreat from the agreement that French President Nicolas Sarkozy brokered on behalf of all European Union, and we won’t have this interpretation,” Interfax quoted Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying.
“We categorically say that the European Union that has assumed the role of guarantor against the attack on South Ossetia and Abkhazia should play this role in full, and all those having influence over Mikheil Saakashvili should demand from him even to stop thinking of any attempt to evade responsibility and obligations for never using the force against South Ossetia and Abkhazia again,” Lavrov said after the negotiations with South Ossetia’s President Eduard Kokoity.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and all ambassadors of NATO member states visited Georgia on September 15 to support for the country after last month's conflict — in the face of Russian criticism.
According to Herald Tribune, the aim of the visit – Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and including meetings with President Mikheil Saakashvili, senior government officials, the opposition and nongovernmental organizations – is for alliance envoys to assess more than just the damage caused in the brief war last month with Russian forces.
They will also use the visit to see whether foreign ministers from the NATO member states will offer Georgia the Membership Action Plan, which sets in motion formal negotiations to join the alliance, when they meet in December, Herald Tribune announces.
"We want to show our support for Georgia after what we have seen from the Russian side," de Hoop Scheffer, a former Dutch foreign minister, said during a visit to Latvia last week. "We have our fundamental differences with the Russian Federation. We had them already before they were embarking on disproportionate force in Georgia. But we do not consider Russia a threat."
Trend News announces, that as for the periods of Georgia's becoming the member state Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said: "I'm not sure about the dates but I'm certain that Georgia will become the member state of the alliance".
"NATO supports the territorial integrity of Georgia" – said Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. "Russia must follow the agreement of ceasefire" – he also emphasized, reported ITAR-TASS
According to RIA-Novosti, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued an angry response to De Hoop Scheffer's outspoken criticism of Moscow's actions in Georgia.
The NATO meeting coincides with a trip by Lavrov to the two breakaway regions which Moscow, in defiance of the West, has recognized as independent states, Reuters announces.
"I have of course heard the statements he has made, statements that are inappropriate for the leader of such a serious organization," he said at a news conference with Sergei Bagapsh, the president of Abkhazia.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned in late August that Russia could sever all ties with NATO amid a standoff over the Georgia-Russia conflict. NATO had already suspended cooperation with Russia, saying "business as usual" could not resume until the country withdraws all troops from Georgia, RIA-Novosti reports.
Discussion about this post