Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
February 23, 2007 Friday
GERMAN MINISTER’S CAUCASUS VOYAGE;
Germany offers equal multilateral cooperation
by Anatoly Gordiyenko, Yuri Simonjan
GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER FINISHED HIS TOUR OF
THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE CAUCASUS; Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier toured countries of the southern part of the Caucasus.
Foreign Minister of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, completed his
tour of the southern part of the Caucasus with a visit to Yerevan,
Armenia. Armenia stands out in the region. Unlike Georgia and
Azerbaijan, it has never lost any part of its territory. Unlike
Georgia, it does not really aspire for NATO or EU membership. Unlike
Azerbaijan, it enjoys an abundance of resources. With all of this
taken into consideration, Steinmeier’s statements in Yerevan would
have been interesting compared to what he said in Baku and Tbilisi.
Unfortunately, the visitor proved to be something of a
disappointment.
He said that Germany’s interest in the southern part of the Caucasus
had nothing to do with eagerness to join NATO or availability of
resources. When Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union, it
made countries of the southern part of the Caucasus Europe’s
neighbors. And the European Union, Germany included, is naturally
interested in cooperation with these countries, in investments, and
in their stable economic development.
The Armenian minister Steinmeier met with said that the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict might be resolved this year and repeated
his recent statement concerning "a very interesting document already
on the desk" (a statement his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar
Mamedjarov promptly denounced).
Steinmeier’s visit to Tbilisi (it was from Tbilisi that he came to
Yerevan) had been more interesting. The visitor pampered the Georgian
leaders’ daydreams concerning urgent entry into the Alliance. "NATO
would like to see its new members free of conflicts. I’m not saying,
however, that conflicts present an insurmountable obstacle for
membership," Steinmeier said and promised that Germany would use all
its clout with the European Union (which it was chairing now) and
NATO to have them facilitate a fair solution of Georgia’s problems.
He emphasized that the West did not intend to apply the Kosovo
precedent to Georgia, "Kosovo may become a model, but this is a
separate issue altogether. It should not be applied to Georgia."
Tbilisi in its turn took Steinmeier’s words as a confirmation that
Georgia might join NATO without Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Some
experts began asking questions concerning the policy of the Georgian
administration because membership in NATO had always been regarded
aiding the problem of territorial integrity restoration. "Ruling out
of the conflict resolution by force is what the Alliance demands from
Georgia," Paata Zakareishvili, the head of the Center for Development
and Cooperation, said. The analyst believes that it will be perfectly
all right for Georgia to join NATO without the restoration of its
jurisdiction over the runaway autonomies. As far as Zakareishvili is
concerned, Russia will do everything to preserve the status quo in
these territories and thus prevent Georgian membership in the
Alliance. "And yet, the process is unstoppable now. It’s just that
powers of the Alliance and its projects are not going to apply to
these territories pending conflict resolution there," the expert
said. By way of proof, Zakareishvili referred to Turkey. "Sure,
Turkey was one of the first to join NATO, and the world was wholly
different then. Still, the Northern Cyprus remains a pressing problem
even now. The West nevertheless perceives the possibility of the
solution by peaceful means, and Turkey is nearly in the European
Union," he said.
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, February 21, 2007, p. 6
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress