'Russia will pay a price.' Rice
Photo: Reuters
'Support Georgia.' Miliband
Photo: AFP
NATO ministers review ties with Russia
Rice, NATO counterparts expected to curtail high-level meetings, military cooperation with Russia if its troops do not pull back in Georgia. 'Allies must ensure Russia does not learn the wrong lessons from the events of the last two weeks,' British FM Miliband says
Consolidating Hold
Despite announcement that gradual withdrawal was underway, no Russian tanks or armored personnel carriers seen leaving Georgia. 'I hope world has woken up to what is going on. The Russians should get out of my country,' Georgian President Saakashvili says
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her NATO counterparts reviewed their relations with Moscow Tuesday and were expected to curtail high-level meetings and military cooperation with Russia if its troops do not pull back in Georgia.
At an emergency meeting at the NATO headquarters, the allies planned to send a message of support to Georgia.
"The first priority is to provide practical and political support to Georgia," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on arrival at the NATO foreign ministers meeting.
He said the allies must "ensure Russia does not learn the wrong lessons from the events of the last two weeks. Force cannot be the basis for the demarcation of new lines around Russia."
Tensions between Russia and the West are at some of their highest levels since the breakup of the Soviet Union, as Russian troops appeared to consolidate their hold on parts of Georgian territory after signing the EU-backed truce to end the short war and pull back its troops.
How far NATO goes in cutting back ties with Moscow will depend on Russia's implementation of a peace plan.
Ahead of the meeting, US diplomats denied Russian claims that Washington wants to break up the NATO-Russian Council which was set up in 2002 to improve relations between the former Cold War foes.
But in a reflection of American anger over the Russian invasion of its small, pro-Western neighbor, a senior US official said Monday the alliance would have to rethink a range of planned activities — from a meeting with Russia's defense minister foreseen in October, to regular military consultations in areas like counterterrorism, managing air space and rescue at sea.
NATO officials said that approach was likely to win broad support, despite wariness among some European allies about further damaging relations with Moscow.
"Russia will pay a price," Rice said before flying to Brussels for the talks. She did not speak to reporters on arrival at the NATO headquarters.
'Get military monitors in now'
Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, warned that what he described as an anti-Russian propaganda campaign could jeopardize existing security cooperation.
"We hope that tomorrow's decisions by NATO will be balanced and that responsible forces in the West will give up the total cynicism that has been so evident (which) is pushing us back to the Cold War era," Rogozin told reporters.
Russia promised to start withdrawing forces Monday back to positions in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia province in line with the peace deal negotiated last week by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
But instead, Russian forces held fast to key positions, sent some of its troops closer to the Georgian capital and roamed freely around the strategically located central city of Gori.
Neutral Sweden, which has close ties with NATO but also engages in military exchanges with Russia, announced Monday it would halt all exercises and military ties with Russia because of the Georgia conflict.
The Swedish government called Russia's military presence in Georgia destabilizing and a crime that violates international law.
The NATO meeting will also discuss support for a planned international monitoring mission in the region and a package of support to help Georgia rebuild infrastructure damaged by Russian forces.
The 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said officials from Georgia and Russia discussed the deployment of military peace monitors at an all-night session at the group's headquarters in Vienna, Austria.
"I am carefully, extremely carefully optimistic" such a deal can be reached, said Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, whose country holds the OSCE presidency.
Finland is not a NATO member but Stubb attended the NATO meeting.
"We need to open the door to get the military monitors in now," he told reporters. He said the OSCE initially wants 20 such monitors in Georgia and expand that eventually to 100.
The OSCE has been engaged in promoting a peaceful settlement to tensions in Georgia's breakaway region since the end of a separatist war in the early 1990s left it with de facto independence and strong ties with Russia. It has a 200-member observer mission in Georgia, but wants to bolster its presence to help monitor a ceasefire in the Georgian conflict zone.
NATO is expected to offer to send civil emergency experts to help Georgia plan repairs to its power network, airports, hospitals and other infrastructure, but the alliance is unlikely to send personnel to carry out the reconstruction. The ministers are expected to restate NATO's firm opposition to the separatist ambitions of Georgia's pro-Russian breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has accused NATO leaders of encouraging the Russian invasion by postponing a decision in April to put Georgia and Ukraine on a fast track to NATO membership.
The Western allies held off because Germany and France were wary of Russian opposition to the move, since Russia is Europe's main energy supplier.
In a visit Sunday to the beleaguered Georgian capital of Tbilisi, however, German Chancellor Angela Merkel repeated Western promises that Georgia will eventually join NATO.
