Agencies, BRUSSELS, VIENNA and IGOETI, Georgia
NATO allies said yesterday that regular contacts with Russia were impossible until its troops are fully withdrawn from Georgia, and said they were “seriously considering” the implications of Moscow’s actions.
“We have determined that we cannot continue with business as usual,” the 26 NATO states said in a joint declaration after emergency talks in Brussels over the South Ossetia conflict.
Separately, they agreed to set up a new forum known as a NATO-Georgia Commission to deepen ties with Tbilisi.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference it would function along similar lines to an 11-year-old arrangement with Ukraine but would not prejudge Georgia’s prospects of entering the alliance.
De Hoop Scheffer said Russian forces needed to return to their positions as of Aug. 6, and until Russian troops withdrew from Georgia he could not see the possibility of a meeting between NATO states and Russia.
“We certainly have not the intention to close all doors,” he said, but added in reference to the promised Russian troop withdrawal: “It’s not happening at the moment.”
“Russian troops will have to withdraw now to their pre-crisis positions,” he said.
Washington had called on NATO nations to consider at least suspending ministerial meetings with Russia, but Britain and others said it would be counter-productive to cut channels of communication with Moscow now.
In other news, military observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will be deployed in Georgia starting this week, after Georgia and Russia reached a compromise and the organization approved the mission yesterday.
Twenty monitors “will be deployed immediately to the area adjacent to South Ossetia,” the mandate by the 56 OSCE member countries said.
In total, the OSCE Permanent Council approved up to 100 observers to be sent to Georgia. Some of the first 20 mission members would travel to Georgia in the next two days, said Aleksi Harkonen, the representative of Finland which currently holds the OSCE chairmanship.
But further details have to be worked out and approved by OSCE members before the 80 other monitors can be deployed.
Meanwhile, Russian and Georgian forces yesterday carried out their first prisoner exchange since the conflict began.
Fifteen Georgian prisoners were exchanged for five Russians at the Igoeti checkpoint 30km from Tbilisi, the Georgian defense ministry said.
A Russian helicopter bearing the Georgian detainees landed in a field beside the checkpoint early yesterday morning. Russian soldiers then took the prisoners to the checkpoint, two of them wounded and on stretchers. The Russian prisoners had arrived in Georgian cars.
DEFENSE: The first set of three NASAMS that were previously purchased is expected to be delivered by the end of this year and deployed near the capital, sources said Taiwan plans to procure 28 more sets of M-142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as nine additional sets of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), military sources said yesterday. Taiwan had previously purchased 29 HIMARS launchers from the US and received the first 11 last year. Once the planned purchases are completed and delivered, Taiwan would have 57 sets of HIMARS. The army has also increased the number of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) purchased from 64 to 84, the sources added. Each HIMARS launch pod can carry six Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, capable of
TRAJECTORY: The severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday, and would influence the nation to varying degrees, a forecaster said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it would likely issue a sea warning for Tropical Storm Podul tomorrow morning and a land warning that evening at the earliest. CWA forecaster Lin Ting-yi (林定宜) said the severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving west at 21kph and packing sustained winds of 108kph and gusts of up to 136.8kph, the CWA said. Lin said that the tropical storm was about 1,710km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, with two possible trajectories over the next one
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CRITICISM: It is deeply regrettable that China, which is pursuing nuclear weapons, has suppressed Taiwan, which is pursuing peace, a government official said Representative to Japan Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) yesterday accused Beijing of interference after Taiwan’s official delegation to the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony in Japan was assigned seating in the “international non-governmental organizations [NGO]” area. “Taiwan is by no means an international NGO, but a sovereign nation that is active on the international stage,” Lee said. Lee and Chen Ming-chun (陳銘俊), head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Fukuoka, attended the ceremony in Nagasaki yesterday, which marked the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city. That followed Lee’s attendance at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Wednesday
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