NATO chief lends support to Georgia

NATO's chief told an audience in Georgia on Tuesday that "the road to NATO is still wide open" despite opposition by Russia.

NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said no country, including Russia, can prevent Georgia from joining the alliance.

"The process of NATO enlargement will continue with due caution but also with a clear purpose to help create a stable, undivided Europe," de Hoop Scheffer said at Tbilisi State University.

"No other country will have a veto over that process, nor will we allow our strong ties to Georgia to be broken by outside military intervention and pressure," he said. "Georgia has a rightful place in this Europe."

De Hoop Scheffer, in Georgia on a two-day visit, criticized Russian recognition of the two breakaway provinces in Georgia and said Russia should respect Georgian sovereignty. He also urged Russia to adopt a more conciliatory tone now that a ceasefire is in place.

But he added that NATO is "not in the business of punishing Russia" because it is not constructive.

"Punishing Russia is not the way forward. The way forward, really, is to help Georgia."

NATO ambassadors from all 26 alliance members joined de Hoop Scheffer on his visit to Georgia.

The ambassadors were scheduled to hold their own meetings on Tuesday, but the delegation was expected to go to the eastern Georgian city of Gori later to show support. Gori was occupied by Russian troops during the Russian conflict with Georgia.

De Hoop Scheffer said he and the NATO ambassadors were visiting Georgia "to show solidarity with its people, to show that we stand by them as they work to reshape their country and take their proper place in the European and Euro-Atlantic community."

In his speech, de Hoop Scheffer said NATO would still like to work with Russia, but it cannot have normal relations with Russia until the country abides by a ceasefire that requires it to withdraw its troops from the former Soviet republic.

Georgia assured by NATO

NATO wants Russia to withdraw to positions it held before the war began on Aug. 7 in the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

NATO has assured Georgia that it will eventually become part of the alliance even though it decided at its summit in Romania in April to postpone its membership process. De Hoop Scheffer said decisions to allow countries to join depend on consensus.

Georgia has about 4.5 million people in the Caucasus region, bordered by Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Black Sea. It regained its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s, but was never recognized by the international community.

Russia, which had peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia, repelled a Georgian attack on South Ossetia, a Russian-backed separatist region, and drove deep into Georgia in a five-day war. The conflict killed hundreds of people and displaced nearly 200,000.