Tbilisi, Dec 01: Georgia's new Foreign Minister pledged today to work closely with both the United States and Russia, two countries that have jockeyed for influence in the former Soviet Republic. Tedo Japaridze, the former head of Georgia's National Security Council, was confirmed to the top foreign relations post by parliament yesterday, one week after president Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in the face of massive demonstrations over disputed elections. Both Russia and the United States have interests in Georgia, which lies in a strategic corridor between Nato member Turkey and the Caspian Sea.

Russia accused Georgia of harbouring militants from the breakaway Russian Republic of Chechnya. Georgia accused Russian peacekeepers, deployed as a buffer force in its separatist province of Abkhazia since 1994, of siding with separatists.
Bureau Report