Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
July 16 2004
GEORGIA-OSSETIA CONFLICT CONCERNS US STATE DEPARTMENT ENVOY
[July 16, 2004, 12:27:00]
The United States is profoundly concerned over the ongoing escalation
of the conflict between Georgia and its breakaway province of South
Ossetia, Stephen Mann, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for
conflicts in the Eurasian region, pointed out Thursday at a news
briefing in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. He spoke to reporters
after his meeting with Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.
According to Mr. Mann, Secretary of State Colin Powell wants to make
sure that the American side is doing all it can to help bring about a
peace settlement of the Georgia-Ossetia conflict and this is why he
has sent the State Department envoy to Tbilisi.
Tonight, Mr. Mann will meet with Russian Ambassador-at Large Lev
Mironov to discuss the latest developments in South Ossetia.
According to the PR department of the U.S. Embassy to Georgia, the
main objective of the State Department envoy’s current South Caucasus
tour is attending a session of the co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group for
Nagorny Karabakh Settlement. Before coming to Tbilisi, he visited
Armenia and the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh.
Along with the George-Ossetia standoff, Mr. Mann is also expected to
bring up issues related to the East-West energy corridor and the
construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. Later tonight,
the American official is leaving Tbilisi for the Azeri capital of
Baku, where the Minsk Group co-chairs are to resume negotiations on
Nagorny Karabakh settlement.
In the meantime, British Defense Ministry spokesman Charlie Morton
reported at a news conference in London that British troops were now
in Georgia to take part in a joint military exercise. About 160
contract soldiers from an infantry unit of the UK Territorial Army
are now staying in that Transcaucasian republic, he specified. They
have joined a Georgian infantry battalion in a bilateral exercise
code-named “Georgian Express.” The exercise will last through July
17, after which the British personnel will return to the United
Kingdom, Mr. Morton said.
This is not a large-scale exercise as 160 troops will be enough to
man a company only, he remarked.
According to the Defense Ministry spokesman, the British troops are
helping Georgian counterparts to raise the efficiency of their
performance and preparing them for peacekeeping operations under the
auspices of the United Nations and other international organizations.
The joint exercise in Georgia draws on the expertise gained by
British peacekeeping personnel in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, and
other flashpoints across the world.
The exercise is being carried out on the Vaziani site-a former
Russian military base 30 kilometers away from the Georgian capital,
Tbilisi.
On Thursday, British and Georgian troops jointly practiced liberating
a village captured by terrorists.