Felix the Cat
02-05-2006, 07:51 PM
Georgia to Quit CIS Defense Group (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/02/06/015.html)
TBILISI, Georgia -- Georgia will pull out of a group intended to expand military ties among former Soviet republics, President Mikheil Saakashvili's office said Friday, a signal of escalating tensions between his country and Russia.
Saakashvili, who has vexed Russia by his pro-Western course, has set the goal of securing an invitation to join NATO by 2008.
"Georgia has taken a course to join NATO, and it cannot be part of two military structures simultaneously," his office said in a statement announcing his decision to opt out of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The council is a consultative body intended to help develop military cooperation among the 12 members of the Russian-dominated CIS, which includes all former Soviet republics except the three Baltic states.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov shrugged off the move, saying Georgia had not taken part in the council's work or in CIS military activities for at least four years. "This decision will not change anything significantly, and the security of the CIS will not suffer," Ivanov said at an international security conference in Munich, Germany, in comments shown on state television.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met with Saakashvili just before the Munich conference, and he stressed Washington's good relations with Georgia on Friday. "I think we should concentrate on Georgian-U.S. relations, and they are very strong and very good," Rumsfeld said in Munich when asked about Georgia's deteriorating ties with Moscow.
Georgia and Russia have exchanged rebukes over a clash near Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia, which has close ties to Moscow. Russian peacekeepers have been deployed to South Ossetia and another Georgian rebel province, Abkhazia, since the 1990s.
Fistfights broke out between the Russian peacekeepers and Georgian forces last week after Georgian police tried to impound a Russian truck involved in a traffic accident near South Ossetia. Russian peacekeepers had discredited themselves in the incident, Georgia's Foreign Ministry said Friday. Moscow described the incident as a deliberate provocation.
Georgia has repeatedly accused Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia and another separatist province, Abkhazia, of siding with separatists.
Saakashvili has pledged to bring rebel provinces back into the fold, and the Georgian parliament plans to consider a resolution this week calling for the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeepers from South Ossetia.
At a meeting Thursday, South Ossetian separatist leader Eduard Kokoity and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the peacekeeping force in the province was the only guarantee against the resumption of hostilities.
Georgia's Foreign Ministry criticized the meeting as a sign of Moscow's bias. Valery Kenyaikin, Russia's envoy at the control commission for the region, dismissed the latest Georgian statement as "pathetic."
TBILISI, Georgia -- Georgia will pull out of a group intended to expand military ties among former Soviet republics, President Mikheil Saakashvili's office said Friday, a signal of escalating tensions between his country and Russia.
Saakashvili, who has vexed Russia by his pro-Western course, has set the goal of securing an invitation to join NATO by 2008.
"Georgia has taken a course to join NATO, and it cannot be part of two military structures simultaneously," his office said in a statement announcing his decision to opt out of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The council is a consultative body intended to help develop military cooperation among the 12 members of the Russian-dominated CIS, which includes all former Soviet republics except the three Baltic states.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov shrugged off the move, saying Georgia had not taken part in the council's work or in CIS military activities for at least four years. "This decision will not change anything significantly, and the security of the CIS will not suffer," Ivanov said at an international security conference in Munich, Germany, in comments shown on state television.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met with Saakashvili just before the Munich conference, and he stressed Washington's good relations with Georgia on Friday. "I think we should concentrate on Georgian-U.S. relations, and they are very strong and very good," Rumsfeld said in Munich when asked about Georgia's deteriorating ties with Moscow.
Georgia and Russia have exchanged rebukes over a clash near Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia, which has close ties to Moscow. Russian peacekeepers have been deployed to South Ossetia and another Georgian rebel province, Abkhazia, since the 1990s.
Fistfights broke out between the Russian peacekeepers and Georgian forces last week after Georgian police tried to impound a Russian truck involved in a traffic accident near South Ossetia. Russian peacekeepers had discredited themselves in the incident, Georgia's Foreign Ministry said Friday. Moscow described the incident as a deliberate provocation.
Georgia has repeatedly accused Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia and another separatist province, Abkhazia, of siding with separatists.
Saakashvili has pledged to bring rebel provinces back into the fold, and the Georgian parliament plans to consider a resolution this week calling for the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeepers from South Ossetia.
At a meeting Thursday, South Ossetian separatist leader Eduard Kokoity and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the peacekeeping force in the province was the only guarantee against the resumption of hostilities.
Georgia's Foreign Ministry criticized the meeting as a sign of Moscow's bias. Valery Kenyaikin, Russia's envoy at the control commission for the region, dismissed the latest Georgian statement as "pathetic."