OSLO/BRUSSELS: Russia is to freeze all military cooperation with NATO following the alliance’s response to the Georgian conflict, the Norwegian Defense Ministry said yesterday. The Defense Ministry issued a statement saying it has noted that Russia “until further notice ‘freezes’ all military cooperation with NATO and allied countries.”
Earlier, the online edition of Oslo daily Aftenposten had reported on the pending decision by Russia. Among initial activities likely to be affected between Russian and Norwegian defense forces was a planned visit in early September by the Russian Northern Fleet’s 61st Marine Infantry Brigade to a Norwegian commando unit, the defense ministry said.
NATO officials in Brussels said the organization had not yet been officially informed of Russia’s decision. “We have not received this information,” NATO deputy spokeswoman Carmen Romero told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Asked whether that information might come soon, Romero said she did not wish to speculate. Aftenposten, citing Norwegian government sources, said Moscow was due to send a diplomatic note to that affect to Norway and other NATO members.
The move came a day after NATO foreign ministers met in Brussels and strongly criticized Russia’s actions in the ongoing conflict in Georgia and its breakaway region of South Ossetia. At their emergency meeting, ministers agreed not to hold any more sessions of the NATO-Russia Council — since 2002 the main platform for NATO-Russia dialogue — until Russian troops pull out of Georgia.
Russia moved yesterday toward recognizing Georgian separatist regions as independent, raising tensions after blocking a UN demand that it withdraw forces from Georgia. Russian troops remained entrenched in the rebel provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, although President Dmitry Medvedev said the bulk of the forces would be out by the weekend.
A senior Russian commander accused Georgian forces of “regrouping” in spite of agreeing to pull back under a French-brokered cease-fire agreement and said the Tbilisi government still had “aggressive” intentions toward Russia.
The deputy speaker of the Russian Parliament’s upper house said the body, the Federation Council, would meet in emergency session on Monday to debate requests from Abkhazia and South Ossetia for recognition as independent states.
That announcement came moments after a senior Abkhaz lawmaker announced that the province would renew its appeal for recognition by Russia. “The Federation Council is ready to recognize the independent status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia if that is what the people of these republics want,” Interfax news agency quoted council speaker Sergei Mironov as saying.
He said this would also require “a corresponding decision by the Russian president.” Medvedev, who was at his Black Sea coastal residence in Sochi has already affirmed that Russia would “unambiguously” back any decision made by the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The leadership of Georgia, backed by the United States, has said it would accept no change to the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as part of the territory of the state of Georgia.
