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US cancels exercise with Russia

An Ossetian stands in front of a damaged building in Tskhinvali, capital of the Georgian breakaway enclave of South Ossetia, on Tuesday. PHOTO: AP

The US on Tuesday canceled joint military exercises with Russia, its first concrete response to the armed conflict in Georgia, as it considered a range of options to respond to the aggression.

“In the wake of this conflict, there is no way that we can proceed with this joint exercise at this time,” said a senior US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said the FRUKUS exercises, scheduled to be held between Friday and Aug. 23, “have been scrapped.”

The exercises were to involve warships from Russia, France, Britain and the US in the Sea of Japan as well as an onshore component in the Russian port of Vladivostok. It was to have been the latest in a series of joint war games that began in 1988.

The announcement came as the US government mulled a range of responses to Russia’s “disproportionate” attacks on Georgia after demanding Moscow make good on its promise to halt the military offensive.

“The Russians need to stop their military operations, as they have apparently said that they will, but those military operations really do, now, need to stop because calm needs to be restored,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

After US President George W. Bush’s warning that Moscow’s actions “have substantially damaged Russia’s standing in the world,” Rice was vague on exactly what reprisals the US could take if Russia did not keep its word.

“I can assure you that Russia’s international reputation and what role Russia can play in the international community is very much at stake here,” Rice told ABC television.

Other officials raised questions about Russia’s ongoing efforts to join the WTO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as well as its membership in the G8.

“Russia has much more to lose than the Soviet Union had to lose in 1968,” one of the officials briefing reporters said.

“Russia has one foot in integration into the international economy and community of states and one foot that is not quite in,” the official said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has outlined a series of ambitious political and economic goals, the official said, adding that in order to achieve these, “Russia is going to have to assure its integration into the WTO and the OECD and the G8 and institutions like that.”

“Russia now has a lot to do” to accomplish that, the official said.

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin told CNN the US also stood to lose some influence on the international scene if it riled Russia.

“We have equal interest … in mutual cooperation,” he said, but if some in the US try “to undermine our relations, to curtail our relations … we might as well let the United States deal on its own with some of the issues,” presumably such as the Iranian nuclear issue.

In his sharpest comments yet on the Caucasus crisis, Bush on Monday warned Moscow to end the war in Georgia, saying a “dramatic and brutal escalation” of the bloody fighting could cripple Moscow’s ties to the West.

“Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century,” Bush said at the White House.

Medvedev on Tuesday ordered a halt to Moscow’s military onslaught against Georgia, but the Tbilisi government reported new attacks later in the day and there was a wary international response.

The two sides agreed to a peace plan brokered by France after Moscow ordered a halt to its attacks, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in Tbilisi.

“There is a text. It has been accepted in Moscow, it was accepted here in Georgia. I have the agreement of all the protagonists,” Sarkozy told a news conference in the Georgian capital.

In Washington the leaders of Congress on Tuesday issued a statement condemning “in the strongest possible terms the recent Russian invasion” of Georgia and telling Moscow it “has a responsibility to follow through [its promise to halt the attacks] and remove Russian troops from the country.”
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