Russia Will Not Be Allowed to Destabilize Europe, Rice Says

By Merle D. Kellerhals Jr.

Russia will not be allowed to win in Georgia and destabilize Europe by creating spheres of influence along its borders, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after an emergency meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium.

"We're determined to deny them their strategic objective," Rice said. "We're not going to allow Russia to draw a new line at those states that are not yet integrated into the trans-Atlantic structures like Georgia and Ukraine."

The North Atlantic Council, the policymaking body of the alliance, met August 19 in Brussels and agreed to create a NATO-Georgia Commission to oversee cooperation with Georgia on a wide range of political, economic, security and related issues, and to help achieve the goals set at the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit, Rice said. Among those goals were plans eventually to offer membership in the alliance to Georgia and Ukraine through a process known as a Membership Action Plan.

The council also agreed on the need for Russia to honor the six-point cease-fire agreement between Russia and Georgia brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the European Union, Rice said at a press conference following the council meeting. Russia agreed to withdraw its armored combat forces from Georgia to positions held by both countries on August 6 before fighting erupted over Georgia's South Ossetia region.

The North Atlantic Council also declared its support for Georgia's territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty.

Finally, NATO ministers agreed that the alliance will not allow Russia to create a line between those states that are members of the trans-Atlantic alliance and those that still seek to become members, Rice said.

"NATO does not accept that there is a new line, and we are acting as if there is no new line," she said. "That is why both the establishment of the NATO-Georgia Commission and the meeting that will take place next week [August 25-29] of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, as well as the visit of NATO permanent representatives to Georgia, are important steps that demonstrate that principle."

Use of the phrase "no new line" is a geopolitical reference to the "Iron Curtain" that divided the East and West during the nearly 60 years of the Cold War.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also met August 19 at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and agreed to provide 100 additional military monitor-observers in Georgia as rapidly as possible, said U.S. Ambassador Julie Finley. "We expect that this decision will not pre-empt the establishment of further international mechanisms, in accordance with the six-point plan," she said in a prepared statement.

Rice said getting the OSCE military monitors into Georgia and the disputed regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is consistent with point five of the cease-fire plan that called for international observers. It is essential that the OSCE monitoring force be in place as part of a broader resolution of the conflict because it will be a neutral peacekeeping force. "I think it's quite clear that Russia has become a party to this conflict," she said, and no longer can act as an impartial peacekeeping force.

When asked if the United States is attempting to isolate Russia, Rice said neither the United States, NATO nor anyone else wants to isolate Russia.

"The behavior of Russia in this most recent crisis is isolating Russia from the principles of cooperation among nations of the communities of states when you start invading small neighbors, bombing civilian infrastructure, going into villages and wreak[ing] havoc and wanton destruction of this infrastructure," she said. "That's what isolates Russia."

And Rice said Russia's use of military force in Georgia and the resumption of Cold War-era strategic bomber patrols off the coast of Alaska is a brinkmanship that could backfire. She pointed out Russian flights along the Norwegian coast and other recent challenges to NATO members.

Rice said the first appearance six months ago of Tu-95 Bear H bomber patrols near the coast of Alaska "is a very dangerous game, and perhaps one the Russians want to reconsider." It was common during the Cold War for U.S. and Russian bombers to patrol the other's coastline and conduct reconnaissance patrols.

See also "NATO Strengthens Ties with Georgia." ( http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2008/August/20080819160731idybeekcm0.4339105.html?CP.rss=true )

Source: U.S. Department of State