(AFP) – Aug 28, 2008

KIEV (AFP) — Foreign Secretary David Miliband reiterated the government's warning to Russia not to start a new Cold War but said Thursday that Western attempts to isolate Moscow would be counterproductive.

On a visit to Ukraine Wednesday, Miliband put the onus on Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to prevent an escalation of tensions between the West and Moscow after the Kremlin recognised two Georgian breakaway regions.

"The Russian president says he is not afraid of a new Cold War. We don't want one," Miliband said in an address to university students in the capital Kiev.

"He has a big responsibility not to start one," he added.

Miliband said isolating Russia would be counterproductive, arguing that the West relied on cooperation with Moscow to tackle global problems like climate change and nuclear non-proliferation.

"Isolation is not feasible -- Russia is too enmeshed in the world economy. It would be counterproductive," he said.

But he said the West must use "hard-headed engagement" with Moscow and Europe should consider ways to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas.

"That means bolstering our allies, rebalancing the energy relationship with Russia, defending the rules of international institutions and renewing efforts to tackle unresolved conflicts," he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko asked Miliband to push NATO to bring Ukraine and Georgia closer toward membership in the Western military alliance by approving a "membership action plan" for them.

"From our point of view, this would be absolutely adequate response to what is happening in Georgia," Ohryzko said at a joint news conference with Miliband.

At its summit in Bucharest in April, NATO leaders agreed that Georgia and Ukraine should eventually join the organisation, but neither nation was given candidate status and no timetable was set.

Russia has been roundly condemned for its decision to recognise as independent nations South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two Georgian regions at the heart of the conflict that erupted this month.

"The Georgia crisis has provided a rude awakening," Miliband said.

"Russia is not yet reconciled to the new map of this region," he said, adding: "Russia needs to change course."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Britain was not in a position to criticise Moscow "considering its actions in the Falkland Islands, which are on the other side of the world," referring to Britain's 1982 war with Argentina.

Miliband urged Kiev's leaders "not to provide any pretext" for Russia to take action against Ukraine, which has sided with Georgia in its confrontation with Moscow.

The appeal was an apparent reference to tensions over Ukraine's demands that Russia prepare a withdrawal of its Black Sea fleet from the southern Ukrainian port of Sevastopol.

"In all international institutions, we will need to review our relations with Russia," Miliband said.

But Britain would not support calls for expelling Russia from the Group of Eight club of wealthy nations, or for EU-Russia and NATO-Russia relations to be broken, he added.

The conflict in Georgia has plunged relations between Russia and the West to their lowest point since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Western officials have expressed worries of a return to a Cold War-type confrontation.

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