Georgia December 2008 Daily Chronology
Tuesday 02 December 2008
NATO members have come to a compromise over membership action plans for Ukraine and Georgia at a meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers in Brussels. The agreement offers support to the two former Soviet nations to help them develop their infrastructure and defence, but it does not provide any concrete plans of how or when they can join. The membership action plan (MAP) for Georgia and Ukraine was postponed due to concerns over political instability in Ukraine, and because of Georgia's military conflict in South Ossetia in August this year. The MAP, launched in April 1999, assists those countries which want to join the alliance in their preparations by providing advice, assistance and practical support on all aspects of membership.
NATO foreign ministers agreed to gradually resume contacts with Russia, frozen after Russian military forces invaded Georgia in August. NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer announced the decision Tuesday, as NATO ministers met in Brussels for two days of wide-ranging talks. He said negotiations with Moscow will take place at the ambassador level. NATO ministers were also encouraging Georgia and Ukraine to pursue major political and economic reforms, with the aim of eventual entry into the alliance.
A Russian naval task force from the Northern Fleet and the Venezuelan navy have successfully conducted the VenRus-2008 joint exercises in the southern Caribbean, a Russian Navy spokesman said. "The active phase of the exercise was carried out according to a detailed plan, jointly developed by the Russian and Venezuelan navies," Capt 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said. "The Russian and Venezuelan warships have practiced deployment in the southern Caribbean, coordinated tactical maneuvering, air defense, search, pursuit and detention of a ship suspected of illegal activities," the spokesman said.
Monday 01 December 2008
The Russian Navy confirmed on 09 September 2008 that a fleet of warships belonging to the Russian Northern Fleet was preparing to cross the Atlantic Ocean and head for the Caribbean. The Venezuelan Defense Ministry says the Russian vessels will visit Caracas from November 24-30, when the joint exercises will begin. Washington immediately responded by mocking the Russian move, which is widely considered a response to NATO's increased naval presence in the Black Sea. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack jokingly said that if Russia really intended to send ships to the Caribbean, "then they found a few ships that can make it that far."
The squadron, led by the Northern Fleet's flagship nuclear-powered Kirov-class battlecruiser Pyotr Veliky (named after Peter the Great, Czar Peter I of Russia) - one of the world's largest heavily-armed nuclear-powered guided missile cruisers - will participate with the Venezuelan fleet in the Caribbean naval exercise in November 2008. During the joint exercises, the Russian navy is expected to deploy Moscow's most modern destroyer, the Udaloy-class Admiral Chabanenko anti-submarine destroyer, a rescue vessel and a tanker ship. This will be Russia's first maneuver in the US backyard in nearly 20 years. The naval exercise will be conducted in Venezuelan waters between the 10th and 14th of November. The Russian and Venezuelan Navy will together perform dry runs of relief operations and test their tactical communication systems.
The official Russian governmental news service Russia Today stated that "The fact that the Russian cruiser was not designed as an instrument of attack, but instead for nuclear containment and defending nuclear submarines, this exercise looks more like an invitation to a dialogue with America rather than a military threat. Moreover, the fact that the American presidential campaign has entered its final stage, it is expected that both candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are going to exploit this naval exercise to their own benefit, verbalizing on the "return of the Russian threat". This rhetoric may become the decisive factor for one of them to make the White House his home for the next four years."
The task force from the Northern Fleet is to visit the French naval base in Toulon on November 5-8. The Russian Navy commander, Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, would meet with the French Navy chief of staff. After port calls and training at sea in the Mediterranean, the Northern Fleet warships will head for the Caribbean to hold exercises in November with Venezuela's navy.
Russia announced in 2007 that its Navy had resumed, and would build up, its constant presence in different regions of the world's oceans. A naval task force from Russia's Northern Fleet, consisting of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the Udaloy-Class destroyers Admiral Levchenko and Admiral Chabanenko, as well as auxiliary vessels, conducted from December 2007 to February 2008 a two-month tour of duty in the Mediterranean Sea and North Atlantic.
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