标题:Nato tells Russia: no ‘new line’ in Europe By John Thornhill and Stanley Pignal in Brussels Published: August 19 2008 19:19 | Last updated: August 20 2008 08:07 Nato warned Russia on Tuesday that it could not draw a “new line” in Europe preventing Georgia and other countries from joining the western military alliance if they wished to do so. Meeting in emergency session in Brussels, the western military alliance’s 26 foreign ministers also suspended regular top-level ties with Russia, saying that “business as usual” could not continue while Russian troops remained in Georgia. Expressing their strong support for Georgia’s independence in one of the most serious disputes between the west and Russia since the end of the cold war, Nato members agreed to establish a permanent commission with the embattled Caucasian country, which is desperate to join the western alliance. Nato is also sending 15 civil emergency experts to Georgia to ease conditions for an estimated 150,000 refugees. Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, insisted that Moscow could not divide those countries that had already entered Nato from those that still aspired to do so. “There will absolutely be no new line. Nato does not accept that there is a new line, and we are acting as if there is no new line,” she said, evoking the Iron Curtain that divided Nato from the Soviet bloc during the cold war. “Nato intends to support the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Georgia and to support its democratically-elected government, and to deny Russia the strategic objective of undermining that democracy and making Georgia weaker,” she said. Earlier, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato’s secretary-general, called on Moscow to withdraw all its military forces in Georgia to the positions they occupied on August 6, the day before the military confrontation erupted. A Nato statement added that Russian military action had been “ disproportionate and inconsistent with its peacekeeping role” in parts of Georgia. Russia began withdrawing military units from parts of Georgia on Tuesday in accordance with a six-point ceasefire agreement brokered by the European Union. The Kremlin quoted Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, as telling Nicolas Sarkozy , his French countarpart by telephone that most Russian forces would withdraw to Russia or to South Ossetia by August 22, leaving some troops in a buffer zone around the breakaway region. However, Russian officials reacted furiously to Nato’s criticisms and its declaration of support for Georgia’s eventual membership. Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s representative to Nato, said that the west was hypocritical in condemning Moscow for its aggression while supporting Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s president. Mr Rogozin condemned Mr Saakashvili as a “ war criminal” who had bombarded civilians and Russian soldiers in South Ossetia, provoking Moscow’s intervention. Mr Rogozin added that if Nato had already accepted Georgia as a full member, then the western alliance and Russia would now be at war. “Are you ready to risk your prosperity and risk your lives and the lives of your children for the sake of Saakashvili?” Mr Rogozin asked correspondents in Brussels. Ms Rice said the US – and Nato – had no desire to isolate Russia. But she added that Russia’s incursion into Georgia and the bombing of civilian targets was isolating Russia from the world. “There can be no business as usual with Russia while this kind of activity goes on,” she said. At the United Nations, Russia rejected a Security Council resolution calling for its immediate withdrawal from Georgia. The draft text had referred to ” the territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognised borders”. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0091248e-6e19-11dd-b5df-0000779fd18c.html 新闻来源: (需有正确连结) -- --

※ 发信站: 批踢踢实业坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 220.129.162.33