BRUSSELS (AFP) -- NATO agreed Tuesday to gradually resume high-level talks with Russia, which were frozen over the August conflict in the Caucasus, and to deepen ties with former Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine.NATO foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, decided on a return to informal meetings of the so-called NATO-Russia Council, despite concern that Moscow is still not respecting a ceasefire that ended its brief war with Georgia."The allies agreed on a conditional and graduated re-engagement with Russia," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters at alliance headquarters.He said that he has been "mandated by the foreign ministers as I see fit, and of course if the other party would agree, to see what political contacts will be possible, can be possible."He added that the NATO-Russia Council will meet on an informal basis "to re-engage and to have discussions on the issues on which we will agree and, I would also like to add, on the issues on which we disagree."Scheffer later told AFP that the informal meeting of the 26 NATO allies with Russia would take place at the level of ambassadors.
BRUSSELS (AFP) -- NATO agreed Tuesday to gradually resume high-level talks with Russia, which were frozen over the August conflict in the Caucasus, and to deepen ties with former Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine.
NATO foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, decided on a return to informal meetings of the so-called NATO-Russia Council, despite concern that Moscow is still not respecting a ceasefire that ended its brief war with Georgia.
"The allies agreed on a conditional and graduated re-engagement with Russia," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters at alliance headquarters.
He said that he has been "mandated by the foreign ministers as I see fit, and of course if the other party would agree, to see what political contacts will be possible, can be possible."
He added that the NATO-Russia Council will meet on an informal basis "to re-engage and to have discussions on the issues on which we will agree and, I would also like to add, on the issues on which we disagree."
Scheffer later told AFP that the informal meeting of the 26 NATO allies with Russia would take place at the level of ambassadors.
GEORGIA: PRESIDENT SAAKASHVILI DENIES THAT WASHINGTON GAVE OK FOR SOUTH OSSETIAN MILITARY -- EurasiaNet
Days after a stinging public attack from a former ally, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili testified [on November 28] about his course of action during the August war with Russia. Saakashvili emphatically denied an earlier allegation that he had received a thumbs-up from Washington to use force in South Ossetia. [...] The [Parliamentary investigation] commission's televised hearings have become center stage for an increasingly vociferous debate about the truth behind what led to the August 8-12 war with Russia. Senior government officials and generals have already taken turns explaining their actions, but the testimony attracted scant attention among ordinary Georgians until the November 25 testimony by the former Georgian ambassador to Russia, Erosi Kitsmarishvili. [...] Citing an unnamed Saakashvili aide, Kitsmarishvili said that the president decided to use force once he felt that such an action had American support. Kitsmarishvili claimed that he spoke with US Ambassador to Georgia John Teft about the claim, who, he said, categorically denied that Washington ever signaled its approval of sending Georgian troops into South Ossetia. After an angry outburst from most commission members, including Saakashvili loyalist Givi Targamadze, who threw a pen in the ambassador's direction, Kitsmarishvili walked out of the commission. [...]
The [Parliamentary investigation] commission's televised hearings have become center stage for an increasingly vociferous debate about the truth behind what led to the August 8-12 war with Russia. Senior government officials and generals have already taken turns explaining their actions, but the testimony attracted scant attention among ordinary Georgians until the November 25 testimony by the former Georgian ambassador to Russia, Erosi Kitsmarishvili. [...]
Citing an unnamed Saakashvili aide, Kitsmarishvili said that the president decided to use force once he felt that such an action had American support. Kitsmarishvili claimed that he spoke with US Ambassador to Georgia John Teft about the claim, who, he said, categorically denied that Washington ever signaled its approval of sending Georgian troops into South Ossetia.
After an angry outburst from most commission members, including Saakashvili loyalist Givi Targamadze, who threw a pen in the ambassador's direction, Kitsmarishvili walked out of the commission. [...]
