Russia “ready” for halt to NATO ties – Medvedev
Washington, 25 August (IranVNC)—Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev today said that he was ready to accept any decision by NATO, including a halt to ties with Moscow, over the conflict with Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
By: IranVNC
Published: Monday, August 25, 2008
13:35GMT—9:35AM/EST
RUSSIA – NATO – RELATIONS
Washington, 25 August (IranVNC)—Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev today said that he was ready to accept any decision by NATO, including a halt to ties with Moscow, over the conflict with Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
“We are ready to accept any decision, up to halting relations altogether,” Reuters quoted Medvedev as saying at a meeting with Russia’s ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin.
Medvedev, speaking after NATO foreign ministers last week said that there would be no “business as usual” with Russia until Moscow fully withdrew its troops from Georgia, also noted that ties with the 26-country military alliance had “worsened sharply” due to the conflict.
But a British spokesperson today cautioned against any complete freeze on Russia-NATO relations, saying: “NATO-Russian relations will need to take fully into account the implications of Russian military actions in Georgia.”
“However, we believe it would be a mistake to suspend all NATO-Russia contacts when they are so much needed,” she told Reuters.
A statement released after talks at the NATO headquarters in Brussels last week also said that the alliance was “considering seriously the implications of Russia’s actions for the NATO-Russian relationship.”
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after the talks that NATO did not plan to isolate Russia, but that the military alliance could not move forward until Russia withdraws from its neighbor.
Russia suspended military cooperation with the military alliance last week after the NATO talks.
Most Russian troops were withdrawn from Georgia last Friday in accordance with a French-brokered deal. But Reuters reports that some Russian forces remain in areas near Georgia’s two Russian-backed separatist regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Both regions, which have had defacto independence since breaking away from Georgia in the early 1990s, receive economic assistance and military protection from Russia.
Today, both houses of Russia’s parliament voted unanimously in favor of a resolution urging Medvedev to recognize the independence of the two breakaway regions.
Medvedev is not bound by the resolutions, and no foreign country has recognized either region as an independent state.
Western countries have emphasized their views that the two areas fall under Georgia’s control.
“As far as we’re concerned, the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia cannot be called into question and the resolution of the Federation Council contradicts the principle of territorial integrity,” Germany’s government spokesperson, Thomas Steg, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Speaking after the Federation Council’s vote, but before the State Duma’s decision, Steg added: “We expect that neither the Russian government nor the president will follow the advice of the Federation Council.”
Tensions between Russia and Georgia erupted on 7 August when Georgian troops launched an attack on the Russian-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russia responded with a military offensive that has expanded into other parts of Georgia.
For its part, Iran has remained neutral in its reactions to the ongoing conflict in the Caucasus.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is set to hold talks with Medvedev on 28 August, on the sidelines of an annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] meeting in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, Iran’s state-sponsored PressTV reports.
Sources: Reuters, RIA Novosti in English, NATO website, PressTV in English
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