Europeans gained great influence in Georgia by negotiating the end of its August war with Russia, but five years after the “Rose Revolution” they remain divided over Tbilisi’s NATO and EU aspirations.
The French EU presidency, personified by President Nicolas Sarkozy, played a “courageous” role as mediator in the conflict, pushing for the rapid deployment of an EU mission to observe the ceasefire and launching talks between the two sides in Geneva, said Sabine Frazier of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.
Previously the Europeans had remained in the shadow of the strong US influence on Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
But now, with the outgoing Bush administration “out to lunch” on the issue for several months, Europe has stepped forward, she said.
The key EU role did not stop with the fighting. It went on to organize a donors’ conference for Georgia late last month, garnering 3.4 billion euros (US$4.3 billion) in pledged help for the small Caucasus nation.
Europe is now “a far more important guiding light” than it was back in November 2003 when the bloodless Rose Revolution brought Saakashvili to power, said Thomas Gomart the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
However the influence is still limited, the analysts say, with Georgia — along with fellow ex-Soviet republic Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Moldova — kept at arm’s length as part of the EU’s ambiguous “neighborhood policy.”
This policy covers nations bordering the EU, which has made great eastward strides since 2004, though not the Balkan nations who are being lined up for full membership in the bloc.
The neighborhood policy encourages economic reforms and democratization through substantial economic carrots.
“But in reality it’s just a lot of window-dressing. There’s not a lot of substance,” Frazier said.
Nicu Popescu, of the European Council on Foreign Relations in London, is even more scathing saying the EU “does not keep its promises” made under the neighborhood policy.
He cites “blockages” on issues ranging from talks with Georgia on visa facilitation, with many EU nations worried about an influx of illegal immigrants.
“Georgia well illustrates the limits, the impasse, of the neighborhood policy, which consists of trying to exert maximum influence over other countries without responding clearly,” to their aspirations for eventual EU membership, Gomart said.
He said that the EU should reinvent the whole policy, regardless of what NATO decides.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
RSS