Posted on 02/25/2004 6:59:17 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
President Bush urged Moscow to abandon two Soviet-era military bases in Georgia as he met on Wednesday with the newly elected leader of the strategically placed Caucasus state.
Sitting with President Mikhail Saakashvili in the Oval Office, Bush told reporters he would help build good relations between Georgia and Russia.
He said Russia should honor a promise to remove the bases, which it made during the 1999 Istanbul summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
"The Istanbul commitment made it very clear that Russia would leave those bases," Bush said after a closed-door meeting with Saakashvili, whose country has sent a small number of troops to Iraq to join the U.S.-led occupation force there.
"It's important that relations between Georgia and Russia be positive," Bush added. "And we will work with (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, with whom I've got a good relationship, to make sure relations are good with Georgia."
The two Russian bases, which house about 8,000 soldiers, have become a hot-button issue in relations between the two former Soviet states since Saakashvili ousted his predecessor Eduard Shevardnadze in a bloodless coup in November.
Saakashvili, a 36-year-old U.S.-trained lawyer who was elected in a landslide, has called the bases a "colonial relic" and linked their removal to cracking down on Chechen rebels who, Moscow says, use Georgia as a base for attacking Russia.
A senior Russian military official said this month that the bases could be closed within seven to nine years. But Georgia wants them shut much sooner.
RUSSIA DELAYING?
Analysts think Russia is dragging its feet on the issue to maintain influence over its southern neighbor and retain a strategic line of bases along NATO-member Turkey's border.
"I believe Russia should become our reliable partner and we should improve our relations," Saakashvili told reporters at the White House.
"But at the same time we believe that America's help is absolutely essential. And we are grateful. We will stay grateful," he said.
The United States, which is training the Georgian military to fight suspected militant Islamists, has indicated it could contribute financially to an early base closure.
But a senior administration official said Washington has not yet committed money to underwrite base closings. The Bush administration has instead approved a $166 million package to finance humanitarian aid, democratic reforms and security.
"As the president said, it's up to the Russians and the Georgians to find a way forward; it's also up to the Russians to meet their Istanbul agreements," the official said.
On his first visit to Washington since taking office, Saakashvili was also scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell and officials from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The bank is supporting an oil pipeline running from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey with $310 million in loans, a project strongly criticized by green activists and international development groups.
The pipeline is expected to be the main export route to the West for oil from the Caspian basin.
TBILISI, February 24 (Itar-Tass) - The United States will train 10,000 Georgian servicemen within a few years, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, now on a working visit in Washington, said in an interview with correspondents of Georgian TV companies on Tuesday. “The United States will continue to render assistance to the Georgian armed forces,” he said in an interview shown by the Imedi TV Channel of Tbilisi.
According to Saakashvili, “the implementation of a new programme of U.S. assistance to the Georgian armed forces, intended for five years, will begin in April.” Under the programme, the U.S. will train according to the American standards “a Georgian brigade with a numerical strength of 5,000, which will be deployed in East Georgia.” A possibility of the training by the United States “of another brigade for the Georgian armed forces, also 5,000 men strong, to be deployed in West Georgia, is also being discussed,” he continued.
The United States has been implementing the “Train and Equip” programme of military assistance to Georgia since May 2002. Four battalions have already been trained within the framework of the programme. The programme will be completed within two months. The U.S. allocated 64 million dollars for its implementation.
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