(AP) U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Georgia and Ukraine starting Monday, meeting leaders eager for further reassurance that Washington still supports their joining NATO and that its effort to warm relations with Russia won't come at their expense.
The Kremlin, having seen several former communist countries
of eastern Europe enter the Western alliance, strongly opposes more of its own
former republics joining. And although the Obama administration has insisted
nothing has changed regarding the Georgian and Ukrainian candidacies, there’s a
widespread perception in the former Soviet bloc that the U.S. has opted to move
more slowly.
On Thursday, an open letter whose signatories included such
icons of the battle against Soviet domination as Poland’s Lech Walesa and the
Czech Republic’s Vaclav Havel urged the Obama administration not to sacrifice
Russia’s smaller neighbors for better relations with Moscow.
Ukraine and Georgia have drawn some comfort from Obama’s
explicit warning to Russia, during this month’s Moscow summit, to respect its
neighbors’ borders. Biden’s visit comes 11 months after Russia and Georgia
fought a five-day war over two breakaway Georgian regions.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili may be looking for
stronger support because of speculation, rife in both Georgia and Russia, that
the war could erupt anew this summer.
“This visit will be aimed at cooling the hotheads in
Moscow and starting more active work on de-occupying Georgian territory,”
said Temuri Yakobashvili, the Georgian government minister in charge of efforts
to recover South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Russia has recognized as
independent despite international protest.
Biden’s national security adviser Tony Blinken reiterated
Washington’s stance on Georgia’s breakaway regions Friday.
“First of all, the United States is not-will
not-recognize them as independent states, and we stand firmly for the
territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia,” Blinken said.
Georgian officials are likely to look to Biden for a strong
statement about Russia’s posture and expanded military presence in both
regions.
Georgia’s national security adviser, Eka Tkeshelashvili,
said during a Washington visit that President Barack Obama’s Moscow speech
reduced the chance of further conflict.
