Russia assails NATO move on Georgia

Russia on Friday slammed a NATO decision to forge closer ties between the bloc and the Caucasus Mountain nation of Georgia, saying it will hurt Russia's interests and affect the situation in the Caucasus region.

NATO foreign ministers meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly decided on Thursday to start "intensified dialogue" with Georgia, whose leadership has made a goal for the country to join the 26-nation alliance.

"Any enlargement of NATO entails serious changes in the security sphere. But the case with Georgia has a special character because of its geographical proximity to Russia and the obvious complexity of problems in the Caucasus," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Georgia's entry into NATO, if realized, "will seriously affect Russia's political, military and economic interests and have a negative impact on the fragile situation in the Caucasus," the ministry said.

"We expect NATO's decision will at least not reinforce Tbilisi's drive to change the existing internationally recognized formats of negotiation processes in seeking settlements for Abkhazia and South Ossetia and to seek to use military means to resolve the conflicts," the statement said.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia's central government in the early 1990s and Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in the two regions since then.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has vowed to bring South Ossetia and Abkhazia back under Tbilisi's control. Georgia's parliament has demanded the pullout of Russian troops from the regions.

Source: Xinhua