Shevardnadze’s Georgia Wins U.S. Recognition

President Bush delivered a vote of confidence to an old friend Tuesday by establishing diplomatic relations with the strife-torn republic of Georgia, now led by former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

As a result of the decision, announced by White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, the United States has recognized as independent nations all 15 of the republics of the former Soviet Union. Washington had withheld diplomatic relations from Georgia because of a violent civil war and a dismal human rights record.

“In recent weeks, the new Georgian government has taken steps to restore civilian rule, begin a dialogue on national reconciliation and has committed itself to holding parliamentary elections this year,” Fitzwater said.

There is a certain irony to Washington’s response to the independence of Georgia, a predominantly agricultural region south and west of Russia in the Caucasus Mountains bordering the Black Sea, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. When Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a former anti-Communist dissident who won the republic’s first free election, was in power, the United States treated Georgia with disdain because of charges of rampant human rights violations.

Gamsakhurdia was ousted in January by a military junta that earlier this month installed a civilian State Council, headed by Shevardnadze, perhaps Washington’s favorite Soviet official during his tenure as foreign minister from 1985 until his resignation in 1990. Shevardnadze, 64, was a hard-line Communist Party chief in Georgia before his selection as foreign minister, but he later became an outspoken democrat.

In a letter to Secretary of State James A. Baker III on Monday, Shevardnadze promised that the new Georgian government will practice democratic politics and free market economics, respect human rights and redress the grievances of ethnic minority groups.