NATO Suspends Talks Until Occupation Ends

BRUSSELS, Belgium – NATO pulled its punches against Russia on Tuesday, suspending formal contacts as punishment for the Georgia invasion but bucking U.S. pressure for more severe penalties.

The Russian Ambassador to NATO played down the impact of the emergency meeting of the Western alliance.

“The mountain gave birth to a mouse,” said Dmitry Rogozin.

Although the allies said they would not convene any more meetings of the NATO-Russia Council until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia, they bowed to concerns from Europe and stopped short of adopting specific long-term steps to punish Moscow for its actions.

“There can be no business as usual with Russia under present circumstances,” alliance Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after the meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

“We are not abandoning the NATO-Russia Council, but as long as Russian forces are occupying large parts of Georgia, I cannot see the NATO-Russia Council meeting,” he told reporters.

Russia asked for a meeting last week but has been rebuffed thus far.

Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said “the future will depend on concrete actions from the Russian side,” but he was forced to add that “no specific decisions on programs or projects (with Russia) have been taken.”

In a small victory for the United States, NATO foreign ministers did agree to show support for Georgia’s pro-Western government by creating a NATO-Georgia Commission to oversee the former Soviet republic’s bid to join the alliance and begin providing military training to its army.

The foreign ministers united behind a demand for Russia to fully comply with a European-mediated cease-fire and to respect Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

They also kept the door open for Tbilisi’s eventual membership despite fierce Russian resistance.

The White House pressed Russia to remove its troops from Georgia more quickly.

“It didn’t take them really three or four days to get into Georgia, and it really shouldn’t take them three or four days to get out,” Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters in Crawford, Texas.\

RUSSIAN SOLDIERS TAKE GEORGIANS PRISONER

Russian soldiers took about 20 Georgians in military uniform prisoner at a key Black Sea port in western Georgia on Tuesday, blindfolding them and holding them at gunpoint, and commandeered four American Humvees that had been used in U.S.-Georgian military exercises and were awaiting shipment back to the United States. In other news from the region:

Withdrawal: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday that Russian troops will withdraw from most of Georgia by Friday – some to Russia, others to South Ossetia and a surrounding “security zone” set in 1999.

Emergency meeting: The U.N. Security Council held emergency consultations Tuesday on the conflict after France requested discussion of a new draft plan to end the hostilities. A diplomat familiar with the consultations said no imminent vote on the draft was expected because consultations on the revised language were just beginning. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were ongoing.

Missile defense: Poland’s government gave formal approval to a missile defense deal with the U.S. The deal still needs parliamentary and presidential approval. Russia has informed Poland – a former Soviet satellite – that it risks attack after agreeing to allow the facility on its soil.

Official visits: Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham are traveling to Georgia this week to show support. They will also visit Poland and Ukraine.

– Associated Press

Originally published by Associated Press.

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