By: CHRIS GRAEME
UNITED STATES Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she did not believe it was in the Russians interests to be isolated from the rest of the civilised world over Georgia on Friday.
At an early morning press conference at the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Palácio das Necessidades, she stated firmly that the Russians had failed to keep their side of the bargain over Georgia, as agreed under the terms of the Peace Plan ironed out with France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy last month.
After 30 minutes of breakfast talks with the Portuguese Foreign Minister Luís Amado, Condoleezza Rice, who had arrived in Lisbon on Thursday evening, said that she believed Russia would change its political stance in relation to the Georgia conflict over the breakaway Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
She also refused to draw parallels with America’s decision to support Kosovo’s agreement to make a bid for independence and break away from Russia’s old ally Serbia last year.
“The Kosovo crisis happened after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia as a state and the subsequent Serbian war of Milosevic,” she said, adding that the recognition of Kosovo as a new sovereign state was generally internationally recognised, whereas the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was in “flagrant violation of the cease-fire agreement” negotiated by Nicolas Sarkozy.
Controversial talks
Condoleezza Rice, who held closed talks with Prime Minister José Sócrates on Thursday at the official residence of São Bento, made the brief stop-over in Lisbon before going on to hold controversial talks with Colonel Moammar Gadhafi of Libya in Tripoli, of whom former US President Ronald Reagan once called “a mad dog”.
“We have indeed had very intense, very deep discussions on a wide range of subjects, although the time has not been very long,” she admitted, adding that she was “truly satisfied” with the levels of cooperation between the United States and the European Union over resolving the crisis in Georgia.
“I am really satisfied with the results that we have achieved together thus far. We have shown our support to Georgia and have shown Russia that we do not accept this kind of behaviour,” she said.
“It is the unity between the United States and European Union that shows the Russians that they can exercise military force by invading a small neighbour but that this will achieve little and that their behaviour will carry costs,” she added.
The Caucuses also topped the agenda at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Avignon, France, in which Portuguese Foreign Minister Luís Amado, an expert in transatlantic relations, was present.
“The most important thing is to preserve European unity since division would be very dangerous,” he said on Friday morning.
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