US warns Georgia not to give Russia excuse to act
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Georgia on Monday not to give Moscow any excuse to take aggressive action against the south Caucasus nation, still reeling from its August 2008 war with Russia. Clinton repeated the US rejection of what she called Russia's "invasion and ... ongoing occupation" of South Ossetia and said diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute had to be intensified.
But she also suggested the solution might ultimately be to strengthen Georgian economic, judicial and political systems, thereby giving people in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist region, a reason to want to be part of Georgia. (Reuters)
