Richard Lugar urges Washington to consider resumption of arms sales to Tbilisi

The report, called Striking the Balance: US Policy and Stability in Georgia, was prepared by the staff of Sen. Richard Lugar, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, eurasianet.org reports.

The carefully worded document does not directly recommend that the United States or NATO rearm Georgia, but it does state that Russian pressure on potential arms suppliers has resulted in a ‘de facto arms embargo’ against Tbilisi.

‘While Georgia has encountered great difficulty in procuring equipment from NATO countries to provide for its basic territorial defense needs, some allies have pursued significant military deals with Russia that could upset the military balance. The United States and NATO allies must reconcile a policy that leaves a dedicated NATO partner unable to provide for its basic defense requirements. These efforts will be most effective if they are undertaken on a multilateral basis. The Alliance must come to grips with the reality that Georgia will require coordinated security support from America and European nations for some years to come’ the report asserted.

Failing to do so, the report added, could result in ‘an excessive nationalization of Georgian defense policy.’

Representatives of the de facto governments of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, interviewed via email, complained that the authors of the Senate report never contacted them for their input. They painted a rearmed Georgia as a threat to regional stability.

Security experts in Tbilisi argue that a strong Georgian military offers the best bet for future stability in the region. ‘Years of experience has shown that any hesitation with regards [to] deepening cooperation on defense and security matters of any sort (for example failure to extend a [NATO Membership Action Plan] to Georgia) has been understood [in Moscow] not as a compromise, but as invitation for ’action,’ said Giorgi Kandelaki, the deputy chairman of the Georgian parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee’.

/Georgian Times/