Biden: US stands with Georgia

TBILISI, Georgia – The Obama administration firmly supports Georgia, but President Mikheil Saakashvili must further encourage democracy, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday.

Speaking at a banquet in the glass-domed dining room of Saakashvili’s $40 million presidential offices, Biden pledged backing for the country one year after its armed forces were crushed in a war with Russia.

He said he wanted to send “an unequivocal, clear message to all who will listen and some who don’t want to listen, that America stands with you and will continue to stand.”

This was a reference to Russia, which claims a sphere of influence over Georgia and resents its efforts to integrate more closely with the West.

Biden, who flew to Georgia from Ukraine, is on a mission to reassure both former Soviet republics that the United States will not abandon them as U.S. President Obama seeks to improve badly strained ties with Russia.

Georgia’s five-day war with Russia last August turned the small nation on the far frontier of Europe into the epicenter of the simmering conflict between Moscow and the West. Obama’s attempt to rebuild relations with Russia has raised concerns among some East European nations that the United States might sacrifice their interests for the sake of better ties with Moscow.

Biden has been attempting to assuage those concerns on his four-day trip.
“As we reset the relationship with Russia, we reaffirm our commitment to an independent Ukraine, and we recognize no sphere of influence or no ability of any other nation to veto the choices an independent nation makes,” Biden said in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, earlier Wednesday.

Biden received a hero’s welcome in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, where flag-waving Georgians lined the streets as his motorcade passed by. They held signs saying “Don’t Forget Us” and “No to occupation” – a reference to the Russian troops still stationed in two breakaway Georgian regions.

The motorcade also passed George W. Bush Street, marked by a large sign with the former U.S. president’s picture. Due to Bush’s steadfast support for Georgia, many here revered him even as he was widely disliked elsewhere abroad, and Bush drew huge crowds on a 2005 visit.

Biden, as the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also visited Georgia shortly after the war with Russia.

At Wednesday’s banquet, Biden alluded to allegations that Saakashvili has imposed restrictions on the media and has a monopoly on power, saying the United States encouraged the growth of civil societies that “hold all governments accountable, yours and mine accountable.”

Addressing Saakashvili directly, he said in a joking manner, “You mentioned protesters. Welcome to democracy.”

Saakashvili called Biden “Joe, my dear friend,” and thanked him for his support and “all your belief in us and our cause.”

But he rejected criticism that his rule has become increasingly authoritarian. “For us there is no trade-off between democracy and security,” he said.

His government, shaken this spring by mass street protests demanding Saakashvili’s resignation, appeared determined to head off any protests this week.

Ahead of Biden’s arrival, police removed dozens of metal cages the opposition protesters had erected in front of parliament to block traffic along Tbilisi’s central street and symbolize what they describe as a police state.

No arrests were reported, and no resistance from opposition activists was visible along leafy Rustaveli Avenue, which remained closed to vehicles. About 3,000 opposition demonstrators protested peacefully a short distance away.