Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08USNATO156
2008-05-06 16:37:00
CONFIDENTIAL//NOFORN
Mission USNATO
Cable title:  

NATO-GEORGIA NAC APRIL 28: INTENSIFIED ENGAGEMENT

Tags:  PGOV PREL NATO GG 
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TO RUEHSI/AMEMBASSY TBILISI IMMEDIATE 5577
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1847
INFO RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNOSC/OSCE COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
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RUEHNO/USDELMC BRUSSELS BE PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 USNATO 000156 

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/29/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL NATO GG
SUBJECT: NATO-GEORGIA NAC APRIL 28: INTENSIFIED ENGAGEMENT
AND RUSSIA'S THREAT TO PEACE

Classified By: Ambassador Victoria Nuland for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

Summary
-------
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 USNATO 000156

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/29/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL NATO GG
SUBJECT: NATO-GEORGIA NAC APRIL 28: INTENSIFIED ENGAGEMENT
AND RUSSIA'S THREAT TO PEACE

Classified By: Ambassador Victoria Nuland for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

Summary
--------------

1. (C/NF) In the spirit of NATO,s new "Intensive Engagement"
with Tbilisi, Georgian Special Envoy David Bakradze discussed
Russian provocations over the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia with NATO Permanent Representatives.
Reiterating Georgia,s commitment to democratic reforms,
Bakradze said Georgia would make full use of the Intensive
Engagement framework in the run up to the NATO December
Foreign Ministerial where Allies will discuss whether to
invite Georgia to begin the Membership Action Plan process.
Ambassador Nuland welcomed Bakradze's timely presentation,
reminding Allies that NATO had just reiterated its commitment
to Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity at
Bucharest and urging Georgia to ensure its upcoming
parliamentary elections are "the cleanest in its history."
Every Allied representative intervened along similar lines -
agreeing on Bakradze's assessment of the threat, if not yet
on offering a membership track to Georgia. Bakradze endorsed
the Ambassador's suggestion that the international community
could facilitate talks between Tbilisi and the separatist
regime in Abkhazia on the basis of Georgian President
Saakashvili's peace plan. END SUMMARY

More Russian Provocations...
--------------

2. (C/NF) In the spirit of NATO,s new "Intensive Engagement"
with Tbilisi, Georgian Special Envoy David Bakradze and NATO
Permanent Representatives discussed Russian provocations over
the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Stressing that Georgia's intention was "not to import our
problem into NATO," Bakradze said he wanted to alert PermReps
to "a creeping threat to peace and to consult with you as to
how such a threat can be averted." Bakradze said that Russia
was attempting to block Tbilisi,s NATO membership ambitions
by undermining Allies' faith in Georgia's stability. In
particular, he said that Moscow's establishment of official
links to the regimes in separatist Abkhazia and South Ossetia
posed a "direct threat to our sovereignty and territorial

integrity." He then drew PermReps' attention to the dramatic
escalation of Russian provocations since the Bucharest
Summit, judging that "clearly, Russia interpreted the outcome
as a cue to accelerate its creeping annexation of Georgia's
territory." He specifically cited the following examples of
Russian provocations:

- Russia's March 6 withdrawal from a 1996 CIS agreement
prohibiting military cooperation with the separatists;

- President Putin's April 4 letters to the leaders in
Abkhazia and in South Ossetia, addressing them as
"presidents" and promising practical Russian support;

- Putin's April 16 instruction to establish direct legal,
trade, economic, social, educational and cultural ties with
the separatist regimes; and

- the April 20 downing of an unarmed Georgian UAV in Georgian
airspace.

... Threatening Georgia's Integrity...
--------------

3. (C/NF) Bakradze zeroed in on Putin's April 16 decree as
being the first time that a foreign state formally
acknowledged the legal authority of the regimes in Sukhumi
and Tskhinvali. He discounted Russia's claim to be pursuing
humanitarian objectives by noting that that kind of
assistance to the separatist regions had never been
restricted, and dismissed Russia's concern for "compatriots"
there as resulting from "passportization" and the "ethnic
cleansing of hundreds of thousands of peaceful citizens" of
non-Russian origin. Bakradze thanked NATO Secretary General
de Hoop Scheffer for the strong statement he had made calling
on Russia to reverse the April 16 decree. He also stressed
Georgia's peaceful and restrained approach to the situation,
summarizing President Saakashvili,s offer of full autonomy
to Abkhazia.

... While Georgia Focuses on Engagement
--------------

USNATO 00000156 002 OF 003



4. (C/NF) Bakradze also took the opportunity to reiterate
Georgia's commitment to the path of democratic reforms and
eventual Alliance membership. He promised to make full use
of the new Intensive Engagement process in the run up to
NATO,s December Foreign Ministerial - where he made clear he
hoped Allies would reach a positive decision to extend the
Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Georgia. He argued that the
Intensive Engagement should enhance Georgia's existing
Intensified Dialogue (ID) and Individual Partnership Action
Plan (IPAP),proposed establishing a NATO Liaison Office and
a NATO Information and Documentation Center in Tbilisi, and
invited PermReps to visit Tbilisi. Noting that Georgia will
host a GUAM Summit (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and
Moldova) in July which will tax local logistic and
administrative capacity, Bakradze said Tbilisi would prefer
the PermReps to visit in September. Following the meeting,
the Georgians explained to us privately that beside their
GUAM commitments, they thought a September visit by the NAC
would maximize its impact on the Allied MAP decision in
December.

Ambassador Reiterates U.S. Support
--------------

5. (C/NF) Ambassador Nuland welcomed Bakradze's positive
response to the Bucharest invitation to "intensive
engagement" and said that Georgia's May 21 parliamentary
elections should be the cleanest in its history to
demonstrate its commitment to Western values. She noted that
NATO Heads of State and Government had reiterated their
commitment to Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity
in Bucharest. Responding to a weak (German-drafted) NATO
International Military Staff assessment that an Abkhazian jet
had likely shot down the Georgian drone, the Ambassador
underscored the U.S. conclusion that the aircraft was a
MiG-29, and presumably Russian. She informed PermReps that
the Secretary had met with Bakradze days earlier and shared
his deep concern about Russia's actions. The April 16 decree
and the April 20 shoot-down escalated tensions, contradicted
the spirit of the UN Friends process, and could destabilize
the entire region. She added that Russia's actions also
called into question Russia's role as a facilitator and
peacekeeper in the region. She praised Georgia's restraint
and urged it to press ahead with its peace proposals, and
asked whether there might be a role for the international
community to facilitate direct dialogue between Tbilisi and
the Abkhaz.

Allies Agree on the Threat - If Not on MAP
--------------

6. (C/NF) The other 25 Allied PermReps took the floor to echo
the same themes. Even France and Germany, the Allies most
wary of putting Georgia on a membership track, expressed
concern about Russia's actions and support for Georgia's
sovereignty and territorial integrity. They, along with the
UK, drew attention to their joint April 23 statement with the
U.S. at the United Nations. Visegrad countries pointed to
their own statement issued April 23 in Prague calling
Russia's actions "unacceptable" and praising Georgia's
restraint in the face of those provocations. Several Allies
also reinforced U.S. calls on Moscow to retract its links
with the separatists, and supported our intention to raise
the issue in the NATO-Russia Council. Allies called for
pursuing Intensive Engagement at all levels, including the
full implementation of Georgia's ID and IPAP. Finally, some
said they would respond positively to Georgian diplomatic
notes inviting Allied experts to review the video footage and
radar tracks recording Russia's shooting down of its UAV.

Bakradze Concludes: Annexation Almost In Place
-------------- --

7. (C/NF) Responding to a range of questions, Bakradze called
the Bucharest Declaration "a strategic victory, but a
tactical defeat," as it had not brought Georgia into MAP,
opening a "grey area" for Russia to exploit Allies' concerns
about potential separatist conflicts. He said that Russia
had already achieved "the three components for annexation:"
offering citizenship to the population, opening official
state-like ties, and deploying military forces on the ground.
He pointed to three Russian statements contemplating the use
of force to "protect" the "compatriots" in those regions. In
closing, he endorsed Ambassador Nuland's suggestion of an
international facilitating role for peace talks.

USNATO 00000156 003 OF 003


NULAND