British Foreign Secretary David Miliband warned Russia Wednesday not to start a new Cold War, and suggested the European Union and Nato should review their relations with Moscow. "Russia is not yet reconciled to the new map of this region," he said after Russian president Dmitry Medvedev recognised the independence of Georgia's two breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Medvedev's "unilateral attempt to redraw the map marks a moment of real significance," Miliband said in a speech in the Ukraine capital Kiev. "The Russian president says he is not afraid of a new Cold War. We don't want one. He has a big responsibility not to start one."
Miliband said the EU and Nato should respond to such "aggression" with "hard-headed engagement," and suggested the EU and Nato needed to review relations with Russia. He also reiterated London's support for Ukraine's application for full Nato membership, to which Russia and many Ukrainians are opposed, but he rejected calls for Russia to be expelled from the G8, as Moscow was too deeply integrated in the global economy.