MOSCOW, September 30 (Itar-Tass) — Georgia again suggests to the United States the deployment of the ABM system on its territory.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has again suggested to the United States the deployment of part of the ABM system on its territory. The U.S. responded with restraint to the initiative, however.
Georgia wishes to replace Turkey in the anti-ballistic-missile shield, which is being created, The Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes. According to confidential information, President Saakashvili, whose proposal was rejected recently by U.S. President Barack Obama, repeated it in an interview with the Daily Beast publication.
According to The Nezavisimaya Gazeta, this is not the first attempt of Saakashvili to consolidate U.S. military presence in Georgia at all costs. All the previous proposals, however, including the proposal to create a regular military base in Georgia, were met with restraint by Washington. On the one hand, Saakashvili’s proposals seem to be in line with the U.S. plans, which provide for the consolidation its positions and influence everywhere and would permit to keep a strong army group close to the hostile Iran. On the other hand, Washington has never wanted and does not want now to be drawn into a possible armed conflict between Georgia and Russia, whose leaders, the same as the Iranian leaders, are regarded as unpredictable by Washington.
Georgia has not received a clear answer from Washington so far, but Saakashvili admitted that the U.S. did not want to sell to them anti-tank weapons and air-defence weapon systems, The Komsomolskaya Pravda writes. Meanwhile, Tbilisi announced that it could not agree to the joining of WTO by Russia until it allowed international observers to inspect the Russian-Georgian border. Experts believe that the threats to block the way to WTO for Russia are nothing but threats. “A telephone call from Washington with a threat to take away all the dollars would be enough for Saakashvili to agree to anything,” Sergey Markov, director of the Institute of Political Studies, told the newspaper.