Govt slams Tories' Georgia proposals
The Foreign Office maintains the government's course on Russia
Wednesday, 13, Aug 2008 05:55
The Foreign Office (FCO) has brushed off Conservative proposals to press Russia on its recent military operations in Georgia.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Cameron told a news conference he wanted the government to take action to show Russia its actions were "completely unacceptable under international law".
Russia sent forces beyond the disputed South Ossetia province in recent days, forcing Georgian troops back to defend their capital against further aggression. The move has attracted widespread condemnation from the international community.
"History has shown time and time again that if you leave violence to go unchecked, it leads to more problems," the Conservative party leader said.
An FCO spokesperson told politics.co.uk it was not prepared to follow through on many of the ideas proposed by the Conservatives.
The government is not investigating the possibility of changing the visa regime for Russian nationals because "whatever actions are taken will be at the international level and not bilateral". It is "important not to punish ordinary Russians", the spokesperson added.
Similarly, the FCO is not calling for the UN to look at the issue in its general affairs council rather than the security council. The latter is the "best organ" to deal with the problem.
And the government has refused to summon the Russian ambassador, as the Conservatives suggest, because the issue is being dealt with at ministerial and head-of-state level.
Britain is not changing its stance on Georgia's membership of Nato; Mr Cameron had called for the process to be sped up but the government is sticking to its scheduled December meeting on the issue.
The government is already taking many of the actions suggested by Britain's leading opposition party, however.
A Nato meeting had already taken place and G7 foreign ministers met yesterday afternoon to discuss Russia's membership of the G8 on the crisis.
There may be some actions still to be taken which have the backing of the Tories.
In response to Tory calls for the UK to convince the EU to suspend strategic partnership negotiations with Russia, the spokesperson said: "We are working with partners to consider the extent to which the EU's relationship with Russia has already been damaged by Russia's unjustified aggression."