Eurasia Insight:
GEORGIA: US AND EU SUPPORT FOR TBILISI GROWS AMID ESCALATING TENSION WITH RUSSIA
Nina Akhmeteli: 5/09/08

With Georgian-Russian tension over the break-away territory of Abkhazia continuing to rise, the United States and European Union are stepping up diplomatic intervention efforts.

The European Union announced May 9 that a group of foreign ministers would head to Tbilisi to explore ways of halting the hostile actions and rhetoric that have marked Georgian-Russian relations in recent weeks. The EU delegation, due to visit Georgia on May 12, is expected to comprise the foreign ministers of Slovenia, Sweden, Poland and Lithuania. Mutual enmity between Tbilisi and Moscow has spiked since the April 20 downing of a Georgian unmanned reconnaissance drone on April 20. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Since the shoot-down, Russia has moved unilaterally to increase its troop levels in Abkhazia, where they serve as a peacekeeping force. Georgian officials insist that the Russian peacekeepers are an impediment to a political settlement between separatist leaders in Sukhumi and President Mikheil Saakashvili’s administration in Tbilisi. On May 8, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed that it had increased the peacekeeping force to 2,542 troops. Under ceasefire terms established in 1994, the peacekeeping force cannot exceed 3,000.

Meanwhile, the Abkhaz separatist leadership claimed May 8 that territorial defense forces had shot down another Georgian drone, this one armed with an air-to-air missile, the Interfax news agency reported. In all, Abkhaz leaders say they have downed five Georgian reconnaissance drones in recent weeks. Georgia denied that it lost a drone May 8, and says only one reconnaissance craft, in the April 20 incident, has been shot down.

A top Georgian government official sounded an urgent note in addressing the Council of Europe’s Ministerial Council on May 7 in Strasbourg. Only a determined effort by the United States and EU could thwart Russia’s hegemonic ambitions, asserted Georgia’s Vice Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze. He traveled to Strasbourg to build support for a Georgian plan that would replace Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia with an international force.

“Russia carries out in Abkhazia and South Ossetia open aggression and it needs a clear response. If Europe can do something for defending its principles and values, it should do it now,” Baramidze said in a May 8 interview broadcast on the Rustavi 2.

In recent days, US diplomats have stepped up their rhetoric in support of Saakashvili’s administration. During a May 9 briefing in Tbilisi, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza assailed Russia’s peacekeeping behavior, saying; “Mediators or peacekeepers don’t issue military threats to parties to a conflict.”

Bryza also praised Georgia for showing restraint in the face of a “series of provocative steps by Russia in recent weeks.” The US diplomat called on Moscow to consider peace proposals recently advanced by Saakashvili. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Like Washington, Brussels is supporting Saakashvili’s peace plan. “We are very much interested to work with the Georgian government to develop that proposals and further proposals to defend and facilitate any contact dialogue between Tbilisi and the conflict regions,” said Peter Semneby, the EU Special Representative to the South Caucasus.

The EU’s growing diplomatic interest in Georgian-Russian tension does not signal Brussels’ willingness as yet to participate in a revamped peacekeeping operation. “This is hypothetical discussion,” said Semneby, referring to potential changes in the peacekeeping format.

The EU, though clearly supportive of Tbilisi, continues to hold out hope that it can play a mediating role. Thus, it is not willing at present to commit to any actions that would set it in firm opposition to Moscow. On May 9, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dmitrij Rupel emphasized that the EU did not have “any intention of supporting one side against the other now.”

Following talks with EU representatives May 8 in Tbilisi, however, Georgian government officials sounded confident that a fundamental shift in the EU’s stance toward Georgian integration in NATO is in progress. EU opposition was the primary reason that Georgia did not receive a NATO membership action plan at the alliance’s summit in April. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Shifting EU attitudes could not only result in Tbilisi’s accelerated entry into NATO, but also in Brussels’ eventual support for a change in the composition of the peacekeepers in Abkhazia. “Sooner or later so called Russian peacekeepers will have to go home,” State Minister for Reintegration Issues Temuri Yakobashvili told to reporters on May 8.

Editor’s Note: Nina Akhmeteli is a freelance reporter based in Tbilisi.