Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said today an EU deal allowing Russian troops to stay in Georgia was unacceptable, hours before he arrived in Tbilisi to underscore support for the aspiring alliance member.
In Brussels, European Union foreign ministers were to rubber-stamp an agreement to send at least 200 ceasefire monitors as part of an international contingent that will replace Russian troops in undisputed Georgian territory.
But underlining differences among Western states over how tough a line to take with Russia over its brief war with Georgia, Mr de Hoop Scheffer said the EU-brokered deal gave too much ground by allowing Russian forces to stay in the breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.
Mr de Hoop Scheffer will attend the inaugural meeting of the NATO-Georgia commission, intended to bolster ties in the aftermath of the war. NATO members are still divided over how quickly Tbilisi should be brought into the alliance.
Nato's support for Georgia over the conflict has incensed the Kremlin. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was demonstrating Moscow's grip on the region today by visiting South Ossetia.
In a newspaper interview, Mr de Hoop Scheffer said an original ceasefire agreement required a return to the status quo before the conflict, but that a September 8tgh follow-up deal brokered by France did not honour that.
"If the Russians are staying in South Ossetia with so many forces, I do not consider this as a return to the status quo," he told the
Financial Times.
"The option of keeping Russian forces in South Ossetia and Abkhazia is not acceptable," he said.
Reuters