More diplomacy: Dick Cheney heading to Georgia

Under the straightforward and innocuous heading "Trip Statement of the Vice President," the White House disclosed this morning that Vice President Dick Cheney is being dispatched to one more international hot spot — and one very delightful Italian resort.

No word on whether the schedule will still allow the vice president to speak next Monday at the Republican National Convention. But the itinerary calls for him to begin the trip on Tuesday, so that should leave sufficient time for a quick round of politics in St. Paul, Minn., where the GOP is meeting, before heading eastward to ... the Caucasus.

President Bush has tasked Cheney with showing the American flag in Azerbaijan, Georgia and then Ukraine, before completing the journey at an international conference, the Ambrosetti Forum, on the shores of Lake Como, in the Italian lake district not far from Milan.

Plunging publicly into a crisis that has tied the U.S.-Russian relationship in knots just as the Bush administration is coming to an end, Cheney will meet with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, and President  Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine, in a clear effort to shore them up with a visible display of U.S. support in the face of Russian military and political pressure.

One of the big questions: To what extent will Cheney wave the blue and white NATO flag — a red flag in Russia's eyes? The Bush administration has been pushing to get Ukraine and Georgia, on Russia's southern border, into NATO, a move that Russia adamantly opposes.

Longtime allies of the vice president have been among those pushing hardest to bring the former Soviet satellites into the Atlantic Alliance fold. And, of course, Cheney isn't known for his soothing words — at least when it comes to national security matters.

His trip will be the third high-level U.S. visit to the region this year, following Bush's stop in Ukraine in March and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Georgia earlier this month following the Georgian-Russian clash.

In Italy, Cheney will meet with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of Bush's closest allies in Europe.

The Ambrosetti Forum is an annual conference — a miniature, late-summer version of the World Economic Forum that meets each winter in Davos, Switzerland — that aims to bring together world leaders, royalty, financiers and business executives to discuss "intelligence on the world, Europe and Italy."

For the White House announcement, click on Read Full Story below.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President

________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release                            August 25, 2008

Trip Statement of the Vice President

Vice President Cheney will travel abroad beginning September 2, 2008.  President Bush has asked the Vice President to travel to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy for discussions with these key partners on issues of mutual interest.  The Vice President will meet with President Aliyev of Azerbaijan, President Saakashvili of Georgia, President Yushchenko of Ukraine, and President Napolitano and Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy, as well as senior officials of their respective governments.  In addition to meetings with foreign leaders, the Vice President will attend and address the Ambrosetti forum entitled, “Intelligence on the World, Europe and Italy” in Lake Como, Italy. 

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Comments

[Mary]

Cheney will be over there trying to say things to influence the elections here in the US. Just watch.

[Alistair F'yfe]

Well since Cheney and John Kerry and Rumsfeld and other Neo-cons are officialy part of the Georgia Development Council or some such (read Blackwater for details) it is no surprise that Cheney is over there protecting the neo-cons oil interests.