Germany, EU Step Up Efforts to Help Caucasian War

[Eurobabe]

Source: Deutsche-Welle

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday urgently called for an "immediate and unconditional" ceasefire in the escalating war between Russia and Georgia as Germany's foreign minister engaged in phone diplomacy. In a telephone conversation with French President Nicholas Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, Merkel expressed her grave concern regarding a further escalation of the situation in Georgia.

She called for an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire and withdrawal of all military forces to their positions before the start of fighting," according to government spokesman Thomas Steg. Merkel is due to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the Russian town of Sochi, which lies on the Black Sea, just a few kilometers to the west of the border with Georgian breakaway province Abkhazia.



Read more: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3551275,00.html

---

Germany and the EU are getting on it now.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Of course they are

Germany was one of the countries opposed to letting Georgia and Ukraine join NATO this year. So was France. Of course they are getting on it - they don't want to p.o. Moscow.

And Bush? Well he just loves the bloodlust and using people's deaths to get his jollies off. So what a better way than to puff up Georgia and getting them to believe that they are 'the man' and can run their own show.


I'm sorry if I come off sarcastic, I don't mean to at all. :pals: I'm just cynical, hard, and totally focused on the human beings getting bombed over b.s. right now. The average little kid that got caught in the bombing doesn't care about NATO, Putin, Medvedev, Bush, Sarkozy . . . he wants to know why he doesn't have a house anymore because of those assholes.

[Eurobabe]

2. Well, I 'm just sick of hearing that the Europeans

aren't DOING anything.

That's all. The whole thing sucks, and needs to stop. Agreed.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. Agreed

:pals: I'm glad they are doing SOMETHING. It's their 'land' - they need to step up to the plate here . . .

[Mojorabbit]

5. I believe Europe

gets most of their oil from Russia. Of course they won't get involved, nor sponsor Georgia's bid to join NATO.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. Well duh.

The idea of Georgia joining NATO is totally ridiculous. They can't even control their own territory.

[daleo]

4. Germany knows a thing or two about the region

I believe Stalingrad is now called Volvograd, and its not far from there. Germany is wise to want parties to disengage. I doubt that Russia will let Georgia have South Ossetia back, though.

[EstoniaKat]

6. You think Europe is doing anything that matters in the slightest?

All we're doing is talk-talk jaw-jaw. That's it.

[Eurobabe]

13. And you think the EU is not? Please elaborate

or don't shit on my thread. :hi:

[amandabeech]

15. I think that the poster is writing to you from Estonia.

When he or she writes "we" I think that he or she is referring to the Europeans, not the U.S.

At this point, no one is doing much more than "talk talk jaw jaw." Except the Russians, the Georgians, the S. Ossetians and the Abkasians.

[Eurobabe]

16. yes I got that part

I just am looking for info as to why the poster thinks the EU is not doing anything except "talk talk jaw jaw."

[fedsron2us]

17. To jaw jaw is always better than to war war

as Churchill said. And he certainly was not an appeaser.

[pampango]

18. He was certainly not an appeaser, but England did declare war on Germany

when the latter attacked Poland. England did not act as though they did not owe Poland anything. At that time, from an English perspective, one could have made an argument that negotiations with Germany might have prevented the larger European war that followed and let Germany keep Poland in return.

[maddezmom]

7. Georgian, Russian foreign ministers hold direct talks

Georgian, Russian foreign ministers hold direct talks



Monday, August 11, 2008
BERLIN/ BRUSSELS: The foreign ministers of Georgia and Russia held direct talks on Sunday on the escalating conflict in the Caucasus, German deputy foreign minister Gernot Erler said.

Erler said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had been holding telephone talks with his counterparts around the world with the aim of bringing the Georgian and the Russian ministers together.

“There has now been direct contact between the Georgian foreign minister (Eka Tkeshelashvili) and the Russian foreign minister (Sergei Lavrov),” Erler told ARD public television.

A German foreign ministry spokesman told AFP that Tkeshelashvili and Lavrov had spoken twice by telephone on Sunday afternoon. Steinmeier welcomed the development as “the end of the political silence” and hoped that both sides would use the dialogue to defuse the crisis, the spokesman said.

Berlin heads a loose alliance known as the UN Group of Friends of the Secretary-General which has been trying to cool tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi over the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia. Steinmeier visited Georgia, Abkhazia and Russia in July to present a three-step peace plan but received a muted reception.

He spoke with Tkeshelashvili and Lavrov earlier on Sunday, and the foreign ministers of France, Poland and Finland as well as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana at the weekend.


more:http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=129278

[amandabeech]

8. Direct talks. That's a hopeful sign. n/t

[fascisthunter]

12. very good

I hope... better than the alternative.

[Eurobabe]

14. thank you maddezmom

:hi:

[Selatius]

9. NATO is not going to get militarily involved. Europe is not going to start a war with Russia.

It will be big words and "shuttle diplomacy" at most. Neither side is looking for a repeat of World War One.

[davidinalameda]

11. I totally misunderstood the thread headline

I thought they were pushing for an escalation of the war

I for one think that Russia needs to be stopped

Putin wants to rebuild the Russian/Soviet empire

picking off a country like Georgia would be a good first step