The Results of NATO meeting in Tbilisi

On Sept. 15-16 a NATO meeting was held in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Geogian officials gave a rather vague description of the meeting's agenda, but as it stated the meeting had been prepared in advance early this year – long before the war. It was originally devoted to alliance and Georgia partneship arrangement. Recent events made NATO representatives and Tbilisi introduce some changes in the agenda.

Georgian Defense Ministry told that the main question discussed was NATO providing Georgia assistance to restore its infrastructure, which was damaged as a result of Russia’s aggression.

A week ago a group of NATO experts visited the country. They assessed the scale of destruction and calculated the amount of money needed.

The newsmaker actually was Mr Scheffer, NATO Secretary General, who before setting off for Tbilisi gave an interview to The Financial Times, where he lashed out at the recent agreements between France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

He reproached the leaders for violating their six-point plan negotiated on August 12. For all that, the main reason for his dissatisfaction was the Russian forces’ staying in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where Moscow is going to deploy another 7,600 people, doubling its contingent as opposed to the beginning of the war.

In the same interview the Secretary General sent a clear message that the alliance won’t abandon its decision to halt regular meetings of NATO and Russia’s representatives till Russian soldiers stay in those republics.

Author: Ksenia Kochneva