Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Regarding NATO Council Decision to Start "Intensive Dialogue" with Georgia
Unofficial Translation from Russian
On September 21, in New York, the NATO Council at the Foreign Ministers level took a decision to start a so called intensive dialogue with Georgia.
In practice this means the granting to Georgia of a qualitatively new status in relations with NATO. It is known that Tbilisi regards this new format of engagement with the Alliance as a big step towards Georgia's admission to NATO.
Our negative attitude to this is well known. The nature of the new security risks and threats calls for schemes of international cooperation other than enlargement of military-political alliances created in the years of the Cold War. Any NATO enlargement entails substantial changes in the domain of security. But the case of Georgia has a special character by virtue of its geographical proximity to Russia and the obvious complexity of the Caucasian problems. Georgia's entry into the present untransformed NATO, if this plan is carried out, will seriously affect the political, military and economic interests of Russia and have a negative effect on the fragile Caucasian situation.
In addition, the previous enlargements' experience shows that often countries joining the Alliance try to solve their bilateral problems with us through their inclusion in the context of Russian-NATO relations. In respect of Georgia an even greater exacerbation of the already-existing problems can be expected and a further reduction of the chances for their settlement. We explained all this to official Tbilisi, but the desire to act against the interests of Russia does not change there, by all indications.
We hold that our NATO partners also have something to think about. It is quite predictable that Georgia's integration into the Alliance will worsen the Russian public's perception of the Alliance even further. For Tbilisi makes no bones about its first wish in this event to shift its problems with South Ossetia and Abkhazia to Brussels. In this case for many in Russia the Alliance will inevitably be associated with the actions of the current Georgian leadership that mostly have an anti-Russian tilt.
The granting to Georgia of an intensive dialogue did not come as a surprise for us. We hope that the NATO decision to this effect will at least not connive at the line of Tbilisi on changing the existing internationally recognized formats of the negotiation processes for settlement in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and at its staking on methods of force in resolving the conflicts. We expect that the Georgian leadership will not regard this move of the alliance as an encouragement of its anti-Russian rhetoric.
September 22, 2006
