BBC NEWS | World | Europe | UK urges tough response to Russia
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband has called on the EU and Nato to initiate "hard-headed engagement" with Russia in response to its actions in Georgia. In a speech in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, he urged them to bolster their allies, rebalance the energy relationship with Russia and defend international law. Russia recognised the independence of Georgia's two breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, on Tuesday. Moscow's fellow G8 members have condemned its actions in Georgia.
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband has called on the EU and Nato to initiate "hard-headed engagement" with Russia in response to its actions in Georgia.
In a speech in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, he urged them to bolster their allies, rebalance the energy relationship with Russia and defend international law.
Russia recognised the independence of Georgia's two breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, on Tuesday.
Moscow's fellow G8 members have condemned its actions in Georgia.
As Europeans work to determine their future ties to Russia, the lack of a cohesive EU policy highlights splits in the bloc, experts say. They advised politicians resist polarization by ignoring Russian chest beating. Western powers were struggling on Wednesday, Aug. 27, to figure out their next best move in the high-stakes game of geopolitical chess being played out in the Caucuses. While Russia's approach before, during and after the 10-day military conflict that concluded with Moscow recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia's independence has always been clear, the European response has been ambiguous. The war "highlighted certain fault lines that existed within the EU," said Uwe Halbach, a Caucasus expert at the German Institute for Security Affairs (SWP).
Western powers were struggling on Wednesday, Aug. 27, to figure out their next best move in the high-stakes game of geopolitical chess being played out in the Caucuses.
While Russia's approach before, during and after the 10-day military conflict that concluded with Moscow recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia's independence has always been clear, the European response has been ambiguous.
The war "highlighted certain fault lines that existed within the EU," said Uwe Halbach, a Caucasus expert at the German Institute for Security Affairs (SWP).
Talk of "war" and "ethnic cleansing" hit European TV channels on Tuesday (26 August) as France and Russia debated Moscow's hard backing of rebel groups in Georgia. But plans for next week's EU summit and new EU-Russia energy links remain unaltered for now. "We fear a war and we don't want one," French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said on the France 2 television station, after Russia gave formal recognition to Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions earlier in the day. "If it's hot, we don't want it." Kouchner (centre) in Georgia during the five-day war The minister showed a map of South Ossetia and pointed to the town of Akhalgori, saying: "Tonight, Russian troops are sweeping through it, pushing Georgians out and over the border. It's ethnic cleansing." In a separate interview on France's LCI channel, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dared the EU to impose diplomatic sanctions at next week's EU summit. "If they want a degradation of relations, they will get it," he said. "The ball is in the European camp."
Talk of "war" and "ethnic cleansing" hit European TV channels on Tuesday (26 August) as France and Russia debated Moscow's hard backing of rebel groups in Georgia. But plans for next week's EU summit and new EU-Russia energy links remain unaltered for now.
"We fear a war and we don't want one," French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said on the France 2 television station, after Russia gave formal recognition to Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions earlier in the day. "If it's hot, we don't want it."
Kouchner (centre) in Georgia during the five-day war
The minister showed a map of South Ossetia and pointed to the town of Akhalgori, saying: "Tonight, Russian troops are sweeping through it, pushing Georgians out and over the border. It's ethnic cleansing."
In a separate interview on France's LCI channel, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dared the EU to impose diplomatic sanctions at next week's EU summit. "If they want a degradation of relations, they will get it," he said. "The ball is in the European camp."
And he has zero power in this government, givne that doreign policy is run from the Elysée, by Sarkozy, Guéant (hie chief of staff) and Levitte (his diplomatic advisot and quasi "National Security Advisor", the well- respected former ambassador to Washington) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Guardian - Seamus Milne - Georgia is the graveyard of America's unipolar world
The Russian message was unmistakable: the outcome of the war triggered by Georgia's attack on South Ossetia on August 7 is non-negotiable - and nothing the titans of the US empire do or say is going to reverse it. After that, the British foreign secretary David Miliband's posturing yesterday in Kiev about building a "coalition against Russian aggression" merely looked foolish.
Independent - Adrian Hamilton - We need an old approach for the new global politics
The US has influence. Britain can tag along behind, claiming to punch above its weight with soldiery and experience. But no settlement is possible without taking the interests and the ambitions of the regional players into account. And that requires a quite different politics than we've been witnessing since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. For a start, you have to take each situation as specific to itself, which is what we clearly are not doing in the case of the Caucuses. You also need to make best use of international institutions, which is again not happening as all the sides wish the UN to intervene only to support them... Finally, and most important of all, you must have a clearly defined view of your own interests, and the limits of your own power, in any given situation. These are things that foreign secretaries have understood for the past two centuries, although not, apparently, their latest successor.
You also need to make best use of international institutions, which is again not happening as all the sides wish the UN to intervene only to support them... Finally, and most important of all, you must have a clearly defined view of your own interests, and the limits of your own power, in any given situation.
These are things that foreign secretaries have understood for the past two centuries, although not, apparently, their latest successor.
