NATO "rejects" Russian recognition of Georgian provinces (1st Lead)

Aug 26, 2008, 15:00 GMT

Brussels - Russia's decision to recognize the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia breaches UN agreements, NATO's top official said on Tuesday in a statement explicitly rejecting the move.

'I reject the decision of the Russian government to extend recognition to the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions of Georgia,' NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in a statement.

'This is in direct violation of numerous UN security council resolutions regarding Georgia's territorial integrity - resolutions that Russia itself has endorsed,' he said.

Russia's actions in the run-up to its war with Georgia over the two regions in mid-August 'call into question Russia's commitment to peace and security in the Caucasus,' he said.

In recent years Georgia has pushed for NATO membership as a defence against its mighty neighbour. In April, NATO leaders pledged that Georgia and Ukraine would join the alliance one day, although they did not offer them a specific Membership Action Plan (MAP).

'NATO supports firmly the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia and calls upon Russia to respect these principles,' de Hoop Scheffer said in his statement.

Earlier on Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel - who spearheaded opposition to NATO offering Georgia a MAP in April - called Russia's recognition of the breakaway regions 'unacceptable' and said that nobody should doubt whether Georgia and Ukraine should be given MAPs following the conflict.

NATO foreign ministers have been mandated to decide on the MAP question at a meeting in December.