'We don't want all-out war'

2008-08-28 11:54

London - The West does not want all-out war with Russia, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Thursday, while underlining that the Georgia crisis ends the period of post-Cold War calm in Europe.

Speaking a day after warning Moscow against triggering a new Cold War, he reiterated support for Ukraine and Georgia's eventual membership of Nato, agreed at the US-dominated alliance's last summit in Bucharest.

But asked if this meant Nato would be willing to engage in armed conflict with Russia to support one of its members, Miliband said: "There's no question of launching an all-out war against Russia."

"We don't want all-out war with Russia," he added.

"It's right to talk about an international crisis," Miliband told BBC radio, adding that "we are in a situation which marks a clear end to the relative and growing calm" in and around Europe since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

His comments came after the Group of Seven condemned Moscow over its decision to recognise the independence of the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The growing sense of crisis has stoked fears of a new Cold War between the West and Moscow, which has become increasingly angry at Western expansion into former Soviet countries, who have joined the European Union and Nato.

Miliband underscored that ex-Soviet countries like Ukraine should not be made to choose between Russia and the West.

"We don't accept that .. .the choice for Ukraine is that either you are an enemy of Russia or you are a vassal of Russia. You can be a partner of the West you can be a partner of Russia.

"The people of Ukraine .. actually don't want to choose one over the other. They recognise they will always be a neighbour of Russia as well as a European country."

- AFP