Just yesterday I again recommended that Georgia aim to internationalize its conflict with Russia over Abkhazia and South Ossetia as its only hope for eventual victory is diplomatic and not military. Today, the headlines seem to confirm that either the Georgian Foreign Ministry readers our blog or that this blogger should perhaps go work for them. According to reuters,
Georgia wants the European Union to send police to the separatist region of Abkhazia, Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Georgy Baramidze said on Wednesday. “We are going to present this request to the European Union, we are going to ask for European police forces to be sent to Abkhazia,” he told a news conference after a Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg. “What we need is for everyone to take part, including Russia.”
Indeed, the Georgian strategy should aim not to exclude Russia but to include them wherever possible, however, along with Europeans and Americans. Additionally, the Georgian strategy must stay on message that it aims to solve the problem or end the conflict and humanitarian crisis, not to take back its territory. In this way, Russia will have difficulty rejecting any offer which indeed includes them and aims not at retaking territory but at solving the problem.
Additionally, the European Union is now dispatching a delegation of foreign ministers to visit Abkhazia, assess the situation and to cool tensions. The makeup of that group should be rather sympathetic towards Tbilisi as it consists of the Slovenian, Swedish, Polish and Lithuanian foreign ministers.
Check back for more as the situation develops. For the moment, a former ambassador of Greece has written an op-ed in support of Georgia and condemning Europe’s cowardice and unwillingness to stand up for its own principles.
Jamestown also has similar advice for Georgia and a further analysis of the peacekeeping situation.
- BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
- « Another Drone Down?
- » Japan-China Relations, circa 2008
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IJ added these pithy words on 09 May 08 at 2:32 pmGreece often criticises the EU - irrationally?
Greece and Cyprus are referred to as ‘trojan horses’ whose governments often defend positions close to Russian interests, and who have been willing to veto common EU positions. A ‘Power Audit’ of EU 27-Russia relations
Recent examples of bad blood are EU on the warpath and EU says Greece must change takeover law.
IJ added these pithy words on 10 May 08 at 3:10 pmThe EU’s dispute with Greece goes back a long way. Even the International Federation of Accountants had criticism:
In 2004, the European Commission launched legal action against Greece for drastically under-reporting its deficit. Following a request by a new Greek government, the Commission revised Greece’s general government deficit for the years between 1997 and 2003.
Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, was summoned to investigate the findings. Military expenditures and interest payments had been serially under-recorded, and the surplus recorded in the social security account had been overstated. The revised figures showed that Greece had been in breach of the EU budget rules every single year since 1997. Had the revised figures been known at the time, Athens would not have been allowed to join the euro zone in 2001.
This saga prompted calls for an improvement in the quality of financial information provided by governments in the European Union, a strengthening of the independent process for compilation of such information, and the need for an independent audit of the output. Little substantive action has yet resulted.
Mitch H. added these pithy words on 12 May 08 at 6:41 pmIs that supposed to be “as if on cue“, or am I missing some sort of obvious pun or allusion to communist-era line-queue jokes in the body of the post?
Chirol added these pithy words on 12 May 08 at 6:42 pmMitch: You’re right, a simple oversight on my part! Thanks for pointing it out.
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