The Messenger, Georgia
May 18 2005
Saakashvili reiterates call for “new Yalta”
Georgian president outlines foreign policy priorities; base
negotiations again fruitless
By Anna Arzanova
Inside the Council of Europe summit in Warsaw
President Mikheil Saakashvili has called for the Council of Europe to
pay greater attention to the post-Soviet sphere on Tuesday, singling
out Belarus for particular attention.
In a ten minute address to representatives from 46 different countries
at the May 16-17CoE summit in Warsaw, Saakashvili discussed his
proposal for a new Yalta Conference first outlined in an article
published in The Washington Post last week.
“Democracy, independence and freedom should be strengthened in the
Black Sea region … It is time to return to Yalta. This time we will
not engage in a secret diplomacy in which our values are compromised
and innocent peoples are enslaved,” he said, repeating the words he
used in the Washington Post article.
In the article, Saakashvili stated that the original Yalta Conference,
sixty years ago, “relegated millions of people to a ruthless
tyranny.” Now, he said, “it is time for a new Yalta Conference, a
voluntary association of new European democracies” that will “make
Yalta a symbol of hope.”
At the Warsaw summit, Saakashvili expanded on his proposal, stating
that this new alliance of democracies would be “public and transparent”
and would be “focused on the future.”
Amongst the issues that he believed such a conference should address
were Georgia’s frozen conflicts, which he described as “black holes
in Europe.” With Europe’s help it would be possible to resolve these
conflicts through peaceful means, he stated.
Saakashvili also said there was a need for Europe to pay closer
attention to Belarus, a country where “ten million people remain in
captivity of the regime. Alexander Lukashenko’s regime rules through
fear, yet fears its own people,” the Georgian president said.
“The world can do much more and Europe too can do much more to aid
the Belarusan people in their quest for freedom,” he added.
Saakashvili was backed by a number of other European leaders, including
President of Lithuania Valdis Adamkus, who described Lithuania’s
neighbor Belarus as a “gray space on the map of European democracy.”
“Lukashenko’s regime is self-isolated and through this forces the
Belarusan people to lose the chance to be part of the European
family. This is my address: do not close your eyes on Belarus’s
situation,” he said, adding that Europe should help this country and
its people to build open and democratic society.
Georgia’s foreign policy priorities
Speaking at the CoE summit, Saakashvili turned to the priorities
of Georgian foreign policy, saying that “Bush’s visit to Georgia,
our participation in this historic summit in the middle of Europe
and negotiations regarding the withdrawal of Russian military bases
symbolize the three main directions of our policy” – to build closer
ties with the United States, Europe and Russia.
The Georgian president explained that the country was striving for
“European integration and at the same time has very close relations
with the United States, confirmation of which was George Bush’s visit
to Georgia. At the same time, Georgia is making every effort to have
friendly relations with Russia.”
The latest phase of this effort to improve relations with Russia is to
reach an agreement on the terms of withdrawal of Russia’s bases from
Georgia, an issue that has proved a thorn in the side of relations
between the two countries.
In Warsaw, Georgian and Russian Ministers of Foreign Affairs Salome
Zourabichvili and Sergei Lavrov again met to discuss the issue,
but were again unable to reach a final agreement.
Speaking at a press conference in the Polish capital on May 16,
Lavrov commented on the Georgian parliament resolution which came
into force on Monday and calls for the bases to be declared illegal
and their operation disrupted in order to force their withdrawal.
Lavrov stated that Russia is doing all it can “to ensure that nothing
threaten the normal life, property, armament as well as military
equipment of those Russian citizens who are on Georgian territory
and who work in these military bases as well as the bases itself.”
He expressed his frustration at the meeting with Zourabichvili,
saying that it was not necessary to travel to Warsaw for such a
meeting, and that negotiations should take place alternatively in
Moscow and Tbilisi.
He suggested that such meetings were unnecessary, as an agreement
has already been reached in principle. “Now it is required that
professionals agree upon how to implement the withdrawal of these
bases, and the participation of the Georgian side will be necessary
in this issue,” he said, adding that such discussions were already
underway.
The Russian minister expressed his belief that had such discussions
already been completed, and agreement would have been reached, adding
that the Georgian government was jeopardizing the process by seeking
to make political gain out of the situation.
Also at the Warsaw summit
Aside from Saakashvili’s speech and the Zourabichvili-Lavrov meeting,
several important decisions were taken at the Warsaw summit, including
the decision to fight jointly against terrorism, money laundering,
and human trafficking.
One topic of discussion was the Council of Europe itself. It was
suggested that the organization should be strengthened so as to be
able to make important decisions in order to establish its role across
the entire European continent with the aim that the 800 million people
of Europe live under free and democratic regimes.
The leaders of the European countries attending the summit expressed
their hope that Warsaw, which suffered perhaps more than any other
city in the Second World War, become a symbol of democracy and the
defeat of violence, racism and anti-Semitism.
Polish President Alexander Kvasnevsky stated that there was a need
to do more to ensure the freedom of the press and protection of human
rights across the continent.
“My country has become the eastern border of the European Union. Our
continent is not finally developed. Press limitation, violation of
human rights and smuggling cause the disintegration of Europe and we
should fight against this,” he said.
Also at the summit, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia met for
talks for the first time in thirteen years. The details of the talks
remain unknown, though it is reported that Nagorno-Karabakh was to
be discussed.