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Biden: U.S. backs Georgia, urges Russia pullback
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:39am EDT
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By Margarita Antidze and Amie Ferris-Rotman
TBILISI/MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden pledged Thursday Washington's full support for Georgia a year after its war with Russia and urged Moscow to abide by a ceasefire pact and pull its troops back from two rebel regions.
Biden called on the world not to follow Russia in recognizing the rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, but told the Georgian parliament in a speech that there was no military option for winning them back.
Tensions between Russia and its former Soviet vassal are rising ahead of the first anniversary next month of their five-day war. Hours earlier, Russia vowed to prevent its pro-Western neighbor from rearming and threatened nations who helped it with weapons.
"We, the United States stand by you on your journey to a secure, free, democratic and once again united Georgia," Biden said to rapturous applause.
"We will not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states and we urge the world not to recognize them as independent states," he said.
He called on Russia to honor its commitments under last year's ceasefire agreement, "including the withdrawal of all forces to their pre-conflict positions and ultimately out of your territorial area."
A Kremlin source told Reuters that Moscow "did not see anything new in Mr. Biden's speech."
"During talks with President Obama, (Russian President) Dmitry Medvedev has outlined to him our approach to the problem and this approach remains unchanged," the source added.
Biden also balanced his support with a plea to Georgia to improve its democracy and to seek the right constitutional balance between its parliament and its presidency -- coded criticism of President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Georgia is pushing for U.S. monitors and weapons to help defend itself against what it says is a threat from Russian troops stationed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, at their nearest point just 50 km (30 miles) from Tbilisi.
"We are a country under attack, under partial occupation," Saakashvili said before talks with Biden. "We decided to join the free world, Europe, the North Atlantic alliance (NATO)."
In a broadside issued as the meeting began, Russia said it would take "concrete measures" to prevent Georgia from rearming.
"We will continue to prevent the re-arming of Saakashvili's regime and will take concrete measures against this," Russia's ITAR-TASS agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin as saying in an interview.
"MUSIC TO OUR EARS"
Karasin also accused certain unnamed states of hiding military cooperation with Georgia "under the guise of humanitarian aid" -- an apparent reference to the United States, which has been sending Tbilisi humanitarian supplies. Continued...
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