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ONE ANSWER FOR SIX
by Natalia Alexeeva
WPS Agency
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 8, 2008 Monday
Russia
WHAT PREVENTS CSTO MEMBER STATES TO SUPPORT RUSSIA FRANKLY?; During a
recent meeting with his Armenian colleague, Serzh Sarkisyan, Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev said, "we will formulate the final stance
during the CSTO summit in Moscow." Diplomats of all six member states
were painfully seeking a degree of the partners in a "mini-NATO"
to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on
September 4.
During a recent meeting with his Armenian colleague, Serzh Sarkisyan,
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, "we will formulate the
final stance during the CSTO summit in Moscow." Diplomats of all
six member states were painfully seeking a degree of the partners
in a "mini-NATO" to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and
Abkhazia on September 4.
It seems that presidents of the countries that are members of the
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) together with Russia
do not have anything against the independence of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia but they cannot say this out loud. Along with this, each of
them has his own reasons for this.
Despite all its inclination towards Russia, Kazakhstan should bear in
mind the opinion of its other neighbor, China, who does not like the
attempts of self-determination very much. Kyrgyzstan is partially
dependent on China too. It is, to put it mildly, not a very rich
country and lives due to investments from China to a large extent.
Armenia, for which Russia is much more than just an ally, is also
interested in more or less normal relations with Georgia. Otherwise
Armenia will be actually cut off from the rest of the world. In any
case, the dreams of Yerevan about the delivery of cargos from Russia
by railway already became unrealistic. There is also the problem
of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Belarus in the person of its President, Alexander Lukashenko, once
again adopted its favorite stance "to you and to them" trying to
understand on which side it may gain more. Even the anti-Americanism
of President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, was not enough to announce
the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia yet.
Tajikistan also justly thinks that it should not outrun its more
influential neighbors.
The recent summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with
approximately the same composition of participants finally managed
to make it only to very vague formulation, "we express a deep concern
about the recent tension regarding the South Ossetian issue."
Foreign ministers of the six countries who met in Moscow managed to
move much further. They are "deeply concerned about the military
actions of Georgian party in South Ossetia." Of course, this is
not recognition yet but an unambiguous support of the stance of
Russia. Will the presidents manage to take the next step?
by Natalia Alexeeva
WPS Agency
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 8, 2008 Monday
Russia
WHAT PREVENTS CSTO MEMBER STATES TO SUPPORT RUSSIA FRANKLY?; During a
recent meeting with his Armenian colleague, Serzh Sarkisyan, Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev said, "we will formulate the final stance
during the CSTO summit in Moscow." Diplomats of all six member states
were painfully seeking a degree of the partners in a "mini-NATO"
to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on
September 4.
During a recent meeting with his Armenian colleague, Serzh Sarkisyan,
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, "we will formulate the
final stance during the CSTO summit in Moscow." Diplomats of all
six member states were painfully seeking a degree of the partners
in a "mini-NATO" to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and
Abkhazia on September 4.
It seems that presidents of the countries that are members of the
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) together with Russia
do not have anything against the independence of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia but they cannot say this out loud. Along with this, each of
them has his own reasons for this.
Despite all its inclination towards Russia, Kazakhstan should bear in
mind the opinion of its other neighbor, China, who does not like the
attempts of self-determination very much. Kyrgyzstan is partially
dependent on China too. It is, to put it mildly, not a very rich
country and lives due to investments from China to a large extent.
Armenia, for which Russia is much more than just an ally, is also
interested in more or less normal relations with Georgia. Otherwise
Armenia will be actually cut off from the rest of the world. In any
case, the dreams of Yerevan about the delivery of cargos from Russia
by railway already became unrealistic. There is also the problem
of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Belarus in the person of its President, Alexander Lukashenko, once
again adopted its favorite stance "to you and to them" trying to
understand on which side it may gain more. Even the anti-Americanism
of President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, was not enough to announce
the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia yet.
Tajikistan also justly thinks that it should not outrun its more
influential neighbors.
The recent summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with
approximately the same composition of participants finally managed
to make it only to very vague formulation, "we express a deep concern
about the recent tension regarding the South Ossetian issue."
Foreign ministers of the six countries who met in Moscow managed to
move much further. They are "deeply concerned about the military
actions of Georgian party in South Ossetia." Of course, this is
not recognition yet but an unambiguous support of the stance of
Russia. Will the presidents manage to take the next step?