NATO urges Georgia to improve relations with neighbours

BRUSSELS - Georgia should improve its ties with its neighbours to boost its own security, while Russia should withdraw its support for the breakaway Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, NATO foreign ministers said.

Georgia fought a brief but bitter war with its neighbour Russia in August 2008, losing control over two breakaway regions in the process and stoking tensions across Europe.

“We all understand that your country has suffered a lot during the last years,” NATO Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze at a meeting with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels Thursday.

“Many human wounds have to heal, but reforms and modernization and a determination to improve neighbourly relations offer the best prospects of a better future for the Georgian people,” he said.

At the same time, “NATO ministers reaffirmed their strict policy of non-recognition of the ‘independence’ of the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions of Georgia, and called once again on Russia to reverse its decision in this regard,” a statement released after the meeting said.

Georgia aspires to join NATO, and NATO leaders at a summit in Bucharest in April 2008 promised that the former-Soviet state would join the alliance at an unspecified future date. That pledge outraged Russia, which saw it as an attempt at US-led encirclement.

Russia’s August 2008 invasion of Georgia, in retaliation for Georgia’s attack on the breakaway zones, then infuriated Western opinion and led NATO to freeze ties with Moscow temporarily.

NATO ministers “expressed their regret over the Russian veto of the UN and OSCE missions in Georgia,” while the meeting “urged Russia to fulfil all of its commitments with regard to Georgia … and urged Russia not to undertake any steps that undermine the security of Georgia,” Thursday’s statement said.

The alliance also responded to the crisis by setting up a new committee to help Georgia reform its military and political life.

“The Georgian government, as well as opposition forces, must demonstrate political will in implementing democratic reforms. NATO ministers noted that they attach great importance to the conduct of free and fair local elections in Georgia in spring 2010,” the statement said.

Rasmussen also stressed NATO’s support for Georgia’s territorial integrity - a key point after Russia declared the two breakaway regions independent and posted its own soldiers there.

NATO is “committed to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, but we all know the security climate in the region remains fragile. This puts a particular responsibility on the shoulders of all relevant parties, Georgia included,” he said.

He thanked Vashadze for Georgia’s pledge to send up to 1,000 combat troops to the hotspot of southern Afghanistan, where NATO is mired in the fight against Taliban-linked insurgents.

“That is a powerful signal that Georgia is willing to do what it takes to become a security provider,” Rasmussen said.

Vashadze thanked NATO foreign ministers for their support and “drew attention to human rights violations on the occupied territories (of Georgia) and adjacent villages and continuing security incidents that undermine the fragile security situation in the region,” the statement said.

NATO foreign ministers are set to meet their Russian counterpart Friday.