SARKOZY TELLS RUSSIA TO PULL BACK AMID NEW COLD WAR FEARS
France24, France
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Aug 27 2008
During a conference Wednesday with French ambassadors, France’s
president Nicolas Sarkozy called on Russian forces to retreat to their
pre-conflict positions, saying that no one wanted to "go back to the
time of the Cold War".
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday no-one wanted another
Cold War and called on Russia to pull back its forces to positions
they held before the current conflict with Georgia.
"The military forces which have not yet pulled back to the lines
they held before the hostilities must move without delay," he told
a meeting in Paris of France’s ambassadors.
Sarkozy said he would discuss the Georgia crisis later Wednesday by
phone with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
"Nobody wants to go back to the time of the Cold War. NATO is not an
adversary but a partner of Russia," he said.
"As for the European Union, it seeks to build with this country
(Russia) a close and positive relation," said Sarkozy, whose country
now holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
He repeated that the EU condemned Moscow’s recognition of the
independence of the breakaway Georgian territories South Ossetia
and Abkhazia.
"This decision, which aims to unilaterally change the borders of
Georgia, is quite simply unacceptable," he said.
Russian forces entered Georgia on August 8 to thwart a Georgian
attempt to regain control of South Ossetia that had been lost to
Moscow-backed separatists.
France brokered a ceasefire but the United States and other Western
nations have accused Russia of breaching the accord by keeping tanks
and troops in Georgia.