In a snub at Russia and a strong show of support for Georgia, US Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Georgia yesterday, underscoring Washington’s US$1 billion commitment to help the small but strategically located nation recover from its war with Russia.
Cheney’s trip also signals to Moscow that the US will continue to cultivate close ties with Georgia and its neighbors, even after Russia showed it was not afraid to use its military against countries along its border.
“The free world cannot allow the destiny of a small independent country to be determined by the aggression of a larger neighbor,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Washington.
Cheney, visiting three former Soviet republics that are nervous about Moscow’s intentions, said on Wednesday in Azerbaijan that his talks were being held “in the shadow of the recent Russian invasion of Georgia.”
Washington has “a deep and abiding interest” in the region’s stability, he said.
Georgia hosts an oil pipeline that brings 1 million barrels a day from the Caspian Sea shores to Turkey and on to Western Europe.
Cheney has been one of the US administration’s most hawkish figures and a strong critic of Russia.
Since the war in Georgia early last month, Russia has boldly asserted it has what Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called “privileged interests” in its sphere of influence, which includes the former Soviet states in the Caucasus.
Moscow deepened the worst crisis in relations with the West by recognizing two breakaway Georgian regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as independent nations.
AID PACKAGE
Cheney planned to make the massive aid package a major highlight of his discussions with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, a staunch US ally who has enraged Russia with his courtship of the West and his drive for NATO membership.
But the talks will likely leave the question of potential US aid to rebuild Georgia’s military unanswered. Military aid from the US, with the help of some European countries, was key to transforming the Georgian army and navy from their ragged post-Soviet condition into a credible fighting force. Depleted by the war, it will need more Western aid to rebuild the military if it is to join NATO, a goal the alliance has promised it will eventually attain.
But angry Russian officials have repeatedly said that US military aid was instrumental in emboldening Georgia to try to retake South Ossetia by force on Aug. 7. During the five days of fighting that followed, Russian forces routed the Georgian military from South Ossetia and drove deep into Georgia.
US officials have placed at least part of the blame for the war on Russia, which has been the two separatist areas’ patron for more than a decade.
Nevertheless, both the US and Georgia are not eager to talk publicly about rebuilding the Georgian military.
In a news conference on Wednesday, Georgian Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili sidestepped a question about whether Georgia plans to rebuild its military, saying US and other Western aid would be used to regain the confidence of foreign investors.
“We will be building the economy of our country,” she said.
Other Georgian officials and some US senators have suggested that rearming the poor, strategically located nation — part of a corridor linking Caspian and Central Asian gas and oil fields with the West — will only follow reconstruction of its infrastructure.
CHILLY RELATIONS
New US military aid to Georgia would further aggravate relations between Washington and Moscow, already at a post-Cold War low.
Russia has condemned the US use of warships to deliver aid to Georgia as a form of gunboat diplomacy. The flagship of the US 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, the USS Mount Whitney, arrived in the Black Sea on Wednesday with a cargo of aid.
“What we expect is an active US role in the economic reconstruction of this country,” Georgian national security council head Alexander Lomaia said.
He said Georgia expected the US to help its bid for the EU and NATO and to send a signal to Russia that “such an illegal military behavior ... will not be tolerated anymore.”
The US aid package is about the same as the estimate given by Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze of how much damage the economy suffered from the war. Last year’s national budget was only about US$3 billion.
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