Bush to meet Saakashvili in Washington
After the Azerbaijani President visited him in the Whitehouse, Civil Georgia reports that the next leader from the South Caucasus to be treated to a tête - à - tête with U.S. President George Bush is Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. No surprise after Bush’s high profile visit to Tbilisi last year perhaps, but are these signs that things are possibly afoot in the South Caucasus?
In a statement issued on June 19 the White House, which has described Georgia as “a key ally” in an important region and “a valued partner” in the war on terror, said the two Presidents will discuss developments in consolidating Georgia’s democratic transition since the U.S. President’s visit to Georgia in May, 2005; efforts to promote “a peaceful resolution to the separatist conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia;” cooperation in energy security and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, as well as common commitment to working together to advance freedom and security around the world.
However, there’s still no word about any possible visit by Kocharian yet, so one has to wonder if alarm bells regarding U.S. policy in the region aren’t ringing in Yerevan. Certainly, after Matthew Bryza’s recent statements, U.S. policy in the region seems to be changing rather rapidly, and doesn’t seem to be favoring Armenia.
Still, given that both meetings with Bush and Putin have been mentioned in the Civil Georgia report, perhaps it’s best to end things on a lighter note by pointing you all to a joke about Saakashvili that I was told by a few Georgians when I visited Tbilisi last year.
