The Obama administration has eased Georgian officials' concerns that their country will lose out as the United States seeks to improve ties with Russia, Georgia's national security adviser said.
Eka Tkeshelashvili, said that a visit by Vice President Joe Biden next week will cap a series of crucial signals from Washington since President Barack Obama met with Russian leaders in Moscow earlier this month.
U.S. support of Georgia's government has been a source of tension with Russia, which fought a war with Georgia last summer. Tkeshelashvili said Georgia was relieved that Obama publicly backed Georgia's territorial integrity while in Russia.
Following the war, Russia recognized the independence of two breakaway territories in Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. While in Moscow, Obama told Fox News Channel that "on areas where we disagree, like Georgia, I don't anticipate a meeting of the minds anytime soon."
The disagreement was highlighted this week by criticism from both sides when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited South Ossetia for the first time since the war, and, separately, when a U.S. warship docked in Georgia for military exercises.
Tkeshelashvili said such U.S. gestures have served as a warning to Moscow that the United States will protect Georgia.
"The signal has been given very directly and very firmly in the way it usually needs to be given to Russia," she said in an interview in Washington, where she is discussing Biden's visit with the administration. She believes that Obama's statement in Moscow has lessened the chance of further conflict with Russia.
Biden plans to arrive in Tbilisi on Tuesday after a visit to Ukraine, whose government also has been at odds with Moscow. The visit is intended to show that the Obama administration rejects Russia's claims to a sphere of influence over the region.
Moscow has said that U.S. support of membership for Georgia and Ukraine in NATO is an obstacle to closer ties with Washington.
As Tkeshelashvili coordinated Biden's visit to Tbilisi, a Georgian opposition leader also was in Washington, meeting with administration officials and arguing that the administration should support Georgia, not its government.
Nino Burdzhanadze, who helped organize recent protests against Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, said in a telephone interview that U.S. officials need to focus on Georgia's domestic politics as well as its security. She accuses Saakashvili of becoming authoritarian and blames him for the war with Russia.
"I'm trying to explain to our friends that we have a serious problem, not only a problem with Russia and our territorial integrity, but an internal problem with democracy which is weakening the country," she said.
