Nato bows to US by freezing links with Moscow

Published on Tuesday 19 August 2008 22:15

NATO agreed after US pressure yesterday to freeze regular contacts with Russia until Moscow had withdrawn its troops from Georgia in line with a peace deal.

The alliance also agreed to upgrade links with Tbilisi but stopped short of accelerating its efforts to join Nato, an ambition which had enraged Russia even before the two-week-old conflict over Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region.

"We have determined that we cannot continue with business as usual," the 26 Nato states said in a joint declaration issued after emergency talks in Brussels.

The statement did not explicitly refer to a US demand to suspend contacts within the Nato-Russia Council, but Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato's secretary-general, said it was clear such contacts could not take place at present.

"As long as Russian forces are basically occupying a large part of Georgia I cannot see a Nato-Russia Council convening at whatever level.

"But I should add that we certainly do not have the intention to close all doors in our communication with Russia," he said, after several European allies, including Britain, expressed doubts about the move.

The Nato statement drew sharp condemnation from Moscow, where the Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, accused the alliance of bias and wanting to support a "criminal regime" in Tbilisi.

Months of tension between Georgia and Russia erupted on 7 August, when Tbilisi sought to regain control of South Ossetia. Russia, which backs the separatists, launched a massive counter-offensive well into Georgia.

A column of tanks left the Georgian town of Gori yesterday, but Russian officials said the main withdrawal would not happen for three more days.

Since the end of the Cold War, Nato and Russia have agreed modest co-operation in areas such as counter- terrorism.