Georgia crisis overshadows Central Asian summit
Central Asian power brokers including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao were set to meet here Thursday for a summit overshadowed by Moscow's confrontation with the West.
The meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security group set up as a counterweight to NATO influence in the strategic Central Asia region, was to take place in the Tajik capital Dushanbe.
The leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were due to discuss regional economic and security ties along with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
But talks were expected to be dominated by Russia's stand-off with the West following a brief armed conflict with Georgia earlier this month and Medvedev's move on Tuesday to recognise the independence of two Georgian rebel provinces.
"Of course we're going to discuss it. That doesn't mean we're going to force people to recognise" the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Kremlin spokeswoman Natalya Timakova told reporters ahead of the meeting.
Medvedev has called on others to recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
China and ex-Soviet Central Asian countries have taken a cautious line, wary of imperilling relations with Western partners. China on Wednesday said it was "concerned" and called for "dialogue and consultation" to resolve the issue.
Medvedev met Hu in Dushanbe on the eve of the summit and informed him of the situation in Georgia but did not appear to have obtained any guarantees of support from China against the avalanche of Western criticism.
US President George W. Bush has called on Medvedev to reverse his decision to recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia, saying it exacerbates regional tensions. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned it could lead to war.
Russia has reacted angrily to Western criticism, saying that it fails to recognise that Moscow only began an armed conflict to repel a Georgian attack against South Ossetia, where tens of thousands of Russian citizens live.
Russia on Wednesday also accused the West of ratcheting up tensions in the Black Sea with an increased NATO naval presence and warned against isolating Moscow over the conflict in Georgia, which has applied to join NATO.
Following the summit, Medvedev on Friday was due to visit a Russian military base in Tajikistan, a mountainous former Soviet republic bordering China and Afghanistan that has hosted Russian troops since Soviet times.
In a move that could further inflame tensions with the West, SCO leaders were also due to discuss the possibility of Iran joining their organisation. Iran currently has observer status in the group.
AFP
