U.S. SUGGESTS INVITING GEORGIA, ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN TO RUSSIA-EU ENERGY SUMMIT

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.09.2008 16:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney renewed his call
for cooperation between Europe and Washington over the Georgia crisis,
Italy’s Foreign Minister said Sunday.

Franco Frattini said that during talks he and Cheney expressed their
"shared wish for intense collaboration between Europe and the United
States."

"This Caucasus crisis cannot be solved unless there is intense
collaboration … which we will have," Frattini said after the
40-minute meeting on the sidelines of a conference on Lake Como.

The two also discussed EU dependence on Russian oil and gas. Cheney
called on Western nations to jointly prevent Russia from "using its
position as a dominant energy supplier to intimidate its neighbors."

Frattini said Cheney suggested inviting Georgia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan. The foreign minister welcomed the suggestion and said he
would relay it to France, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

The opinion of Europe and Washington doesn’t seem so undivided when
it comes to the dates to accept Georgia and Ukraine to NATO. Cheney
advocates the soonest membership, reasoning that Russia "pressurizes
by its vast energy wealth and hinders the development of young
democracies."

According to Frattini, the decision of Europe is to neither
artificially accelerate nor slow down the acceptance of new members,
The Associated Press reports.