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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia | |||
| Georgia offers NATO troops for Afghanistan | |||
| 2008-04-01 | |||
BRUSSELS -- Georgia offered several hundred troops on Monday to support French and Dutch NATO troops in Afghanistan, two days before an alliance summit it hopes will boost its membership aspirations.
However the formal offer of support to two countries which, according to diplomats, believe it is too early to offer Georgia and ex-Soviet Ukraine membership plans buttresses Tbilisi's argument that it can add value to the military alliance. "Whatever happens in Bucharest, they will go and fight," Mr. Bakradze told Reuters by telephone. He said Georgia was offering to send some 120 troops to support the French contingent in Kabul and 200 to accompany the Dutch in the southern province of Uruzgan which has seen some of the worse violence in a Taliban-led insurgency. "Altogether there will be something over 350 troops ... The reaction was positive," said Mr. Bakradze, adding that they were expected to deploy in late August or early September. The Georgian forces will be deployed without "caveats", the national restrictions on what tasks they may perform and where they will go, which NATO commanders say have hampered the 47,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
To date, the ex-Soviet state's only contribution to the NATO Afghan force has been one doctor, but it has several hundred servicemen in Iraq as part of a U.S.-led coalition. Georgia hopes to be given a Membership Action Plan (MAP) -- a roadmap to eventual entry to NATO -- at an alliance summit starting on Wednesday in Bucharest. It has support from the United States and ex-communist central European NATO members but is facing resistance from up to seven or eight west European allies, with Germany the most vocal sceptic. They argue that NATO cannot set the tiny Caucasus nation on the path to membership until it has settled territorial disputes with Russian-backed separatists on its soil, and point to its heavy-handed suppression of opposition protests last year. They further contend the move would unnecessarily damage ties with Russia, which is already seething over the Western-backed secession of Kosovo from its ally Serbia.
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| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #4 DEBKA [Title paraph]> BUSH SAYS GEORGIA, UKRAINE ADMISSION INTO NATO IS IN THE INTEREST OF OTHER NATO MEMBERS. FOX NEWS AM > Potential expansion of NATO = THREAT TO RUSSIA? wid admission of UKRAINE, GEORGIA, and Other > POTUS Dubya - THERE WILL BE NO TRADEOFFS as far as US is concerned. The US-World has better hope that RUSSIA, FORMER CENASIA SSRS, + even CHINA had secured their nuclear arsenals as good as they like to claim, BECUZ OSAMA + RADICAL ISLAM IS HEADIN' THEIR WAY TO TEST THEIR THEORY! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-04-01 20:28 |
| #3 DEBKA [Title paraph]> BUSH SAYS GEORGIA, UKRAINE ADMISSION INTO NATO IS IN THE INTEREST OF OTHER NATO MEMBERS. FOX NEWS AM > Potential expansion of NATO = THREAT TO RUSSIA? wid admission of UKRAINE, GEORGIA, and Other > POTUS Dubya - THERE WILL BE NO TRADEOFFS as far as US is concerned. The US-World has better hope that RUSSIA, FORMER CENASIA SSRS, + even CHINA had secured their nuclear arsenals as good as they like to claim, BECUZ OSAMA + RADICAL ISLAM IS HEADIN' THEIR WAY TO TEST THEIR THEORY! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-04-01 20:27 |
| #2 If McCain is elected, I hope that he goes out of his way to extend courtesies to both Georgia and Ukraine. Probably the best outcome would be if Georgia could form an alliance with Turkey and Iraq, though it would be difficult, in the form of a common market. This would be a much easier sell to Russia than NATO membership, yet realign Georgia away from Russia to a lesser degree. A similar idea for Ukraine, with a multilateral agreement with Romania, Moldova and Poland. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-04-01 20:00 |
| #1 The Georgians have done a great job in Iraq. The Georgian brigade is in Wassit Province. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2008-04-01 15:27 |