04.10.2006 Russia, Moscow. Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee member Dmitry Rogozin attends a Duma session.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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New Plan Thought up for Georgia and Ukraine
// The Russia-NATO Council restored
Yesterday Brussels hosted a meeting of NATO foreign office chiefs. The ministers touched upon two questions of special importance to Russia: whether the Russia-NATO Council will resume its work (the Alliance suspended it in August after the war in South Ossetia), and whether NATO will give Georgia and Ukraine a plan of accelerated integration.
Yesterday’s meeting of NATO foreign office chiefs lasted till late at night. “All NATO foreign ministers are present here,” a source in the NATO headquarters told Kommersant. “The Council focuses on a number of issues, including the Alliance’s transformation, the state of affairs in Afghanistan and Pakistan, pirates in Somalia, and the preparation of NATO’s anniversary summit. But the most controversial questions are the possibility of the Russia-NATO Council resuming its work and granting Georgia and Ukraine the membership action plan (MAP).”
The Ukrainian and Georgian delegations stayed in the NATO headquarters till late at night waiting for the meeting’s outcome. “They sit at the assembly hall’s door smoking nervously,” Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin told Kommersant ironically. “They understand that everything will be determined today; tomorrow only the Georgia-NATO and Ukraine-NATO Council meetings will take place.” From time to time delegates came to the press centre, however they gave no comments. It seems that the delegations simply did not know what it all would end with. Only Georgian Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili remarked that Georgia did not expect to be granted the MAP at that meeting; and Georgian Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia said that Tbilisi would not receive the MAP; however it could be given the so-called Annual Target Plan (ATP).
Yesterday the media reported that NATO members reached an agreement for a specific formula for Ukraine and Georgia allowing those countries to join the Alliance fulfilling ATP requirements. However, a source of Kommersant with the Brussels headquarters neither confirmed that information nor denied it, “There were several variants for the Council’s members to consider. One of them was the ATP. But you never know what decision will be made since till the last moment there was no common approach towards Ukraine and Georgia’s accelerated integration.”
According to the source of Kommersant, the ATP envisions Georgia and Ukraine’s fulfilling a few tasks: democratization of society, ensuring the freedom of speech, independence of justice and fair elections, as well as continuing the military reform (this requirement concerns Ukraine mainly – its armed forces are in a deep crisis). The Ukraine-NATO and Georgia-NATO Councils are the major coordinating bodies in this process. Last week U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke about their importance. European interlocutors of Kommersant do not rule out that in case Ukraine and Georgia comply with the ATP, they will be able to join NATO without the MAP.
Yesterday evening in the headquarters lobby’s it was already known that along with the U.S. a number of Eastern European countries and the Baltic states insist on the ATP formula allowing Kiev and Tbilisi to bypass the MAP stage. However, Germany and France will agree to the new variant for Georgia and Ukraine unless the ATP fully substitutes for the MAP.
“No one in the Georgian delegation expects a breakthrough,” military expert Koba Liklikadze, who is in Brussels, told Kommersant. “We are well aware of France and Germany’s sentiments. Nevertheless, Georgia is believed to be capable of receiving the ATP. Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband told us today that the Georgia-NATO Council is enough for active development of relations between Georgia and the Alliance.”
Yesterday Kommersant reported that Washington preferred developing de facto military partnership with Georgia to the long MAP procedure. According to the information of Kommersant, this variant quite suits Tbilisi; and the Georgian delegation already brought its offers to Brussels confirming its readiness to participate in NATO projects irrespective of the Alliance’s decision regarding accelerated integration. In particular, Georgia’s offers concern strengthening the “Afghan element” of partnership.
According to the information of Kommersant, at today’s meeting of the Georgia-NATO Council in Brussels Tbilisi is going to suggest that the Alliance should introduce two Georgian companies into its Dutch and French battalions in Afghanistan. In addition, Tbilisi is ready to allow NATO to use the port of Poti for military purposes, including for NATO’s cargo transit to Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s Lemar TV has recently reported that Washington considers the variant of opening a new transit route to Afghanistan through Poti, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan — omitting Russia. This information is partly proved by the fact that ahead of the Brussels meeting the Kazakh Parliament ratified memorandums between Astana and Washington regarding the support for the Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Signed back in 2001 and 2002, and ratified only yesterday, these documents give the USA an opportunity to use the military sites of Alma-Ata airport as a spare airfield for crash landings of military jets flying to Afghanistan and back.
If such a project really exists (apart from addressing Afghan problems, it allows Washington to solidify its grip on the Caspian states), its realisation will be impeded by Russian troops in Akhalgori, which is several kilometers away from the federal highway connecting the port of Poti with Tbilisi and Azerbaijan. Probably it was the reason for U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying ahead of the meeting in Brussels that the U.S. does not mind the Russia-NATO Council resuming its work, blocked by the Alliance shortly after the war in South Ossetia; at the same time she warned NATO member-states against joint military projects with Russia.
However, according to a source of Kommersant in Brussels, NATO still “hopes to improve relations with Russia, including military partnership,” despite the U.S. administration’s various projects.” “At the present stage Russia’s allowing NATO to use its air passage is very important to the Alliance’s mission in Afghanistan,” the interlocutor of Kommersant said. “Other ways have not been studied yet, and the Pakistan transit jeopardizes the security of cargoes and the military contingent in Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, according to experts, the question of supplying cargoes to Afghanistan becomes of particular relevance in connection with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s plans to boost the U.S. contingent in that country by 20 thousand people. “Americans are sick and tired of the sluggish operation in Afghanistan, and Obama must put an end to it whatever,” Andrei Serenko from the Centre for Modern Afghanistan Studies believes. “Therefore in spring, 2009 they will try to carry out the country’ “cleansing” to sap the Taliban. To ensure this operation’s effectiveness, they will need the Russian air passage.”
Ahead of the meeting in Brussels Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini stated that Russia and NATO may resume contacts at the ambassador level, returning to the format of meetings at the highest level in April, 2009, at NATO’s anniversary summit. After yesterday’s meeting NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer confirmed this information.
Moscow has already responded to such “friendly messages,” returning in Brussels its military representative, who was recalled in August, — last night General Alexei Maslov arrived at the NATO headquarters.
Olga Allenova
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 03, 2008
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