MOSCOW — Seeking to soothe fears of growing rivalry along Russia's borders with former Soviet republics, U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on Monday said the U.S. has no plans to create military bases in Georgia.
At the same time, U.S. officials have not ruled out a long-term security presence in the strategically important Caucasus republic, once a part of the Soviet empire and still a crucial component of the Kremlin's effort to maintain an extensive sphere of influence and counter NATO's expansion toward its western frontier.
"We have no plans to set up military bases in Georgia," Powell said after meeting with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov. It was the first in a series of meetings aimed at smoothing the edgy U.S.-Russian relationship that emerged after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"We simply want to have good relations with Georgia," Powell said. "The U.S. does not want to build bases all over the world. There is no need to."
Russia was not even mentioned in President Bush's State of the Union address last week, and its demands for a greater United Nations role in Iraq and fulfillment of billions of dollars of Russian contracts there have gone unheeded.
Russia feels increasingly threatened by what it sees as growing U.S. interest in the ex-Soviet republics of the Caucasus that once answered to Moscow and now make up a turbulent and potentially unstable belt around Russia's perimeter.
For the United States, the region provides a window onto crucial theaters in the war on terrorism, including Afghanistan and Iraq. It also encompasses a crucial transport route for oil riches from the Caspian Sea.
The U.S. already has a Central Asian base in Uzbekistan, opened with Russia's blessing on the eve of the war in Afghanistan. Now Georgia, once a Caucasus backwater, is the scene of intense political jockeying in the wake of the so-called Rose Revolution that swept President Eduard A. Shevardnadze from power late last year.
Powell's arrival over the weekend for the inauguration of President Mikheil Saakashvili underscored what the secretary said was the United States' commitment to help Georgia promote democracy, improve its economy, protect human rights and end corruption.
He said the presence of more than 200 U.S. troops who arrived in Georgia in 2002 to provide counterterrorism training was a benefit to Russia, which has suffered attacks mounted by Chechen rebels out of Georgia's Pankisi Gorge.
