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In Potsdam this week, Rice challenged her Russian colleague to pronounce a difficult word. None of Kosovo's problems got solved.

POTSDAM (Tiraspol Times) - During a news conference held in Potsdam, Germany, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice engaged in word play and challenged her Russian counterpart, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, to pronounce a difficult English name.

She announced Wednesday that U.S. President George W. Bush will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kennebunkport, Maine, on July 1-2, and then teasingly challenged Lavrov to pronounce "Kennebunkport."

As The Washington Post reported, Lavrov - a fluent English speaker and former Ambassador to the United Nations in New York - easily passed the test.

Members of the press corps were taken aback by the U.S. cabinet member's frivolous game show attitude, with one journalist asking out loud: "What's next: A spelling bee for the Foreign Ministers of the G8?"

Sergei Lavrov, fluent English but more interested in work than in games.

Russian focus on work and issues

The foreign ministers spent the day meeting in the Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam, Germany.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for his part, used his portion of the news conference to focus on some of the problems that the world's major powers will need to solve in the weeks and months ahead. He highlighted the need for mutual agreement on conflict resolution in Kosovo and other disputed territories.

During the meetings, Lavrov pointed to other separatist conflicts that he said should be settled first, including Northern Cyprus, Western Sahara, Transdniestria and South Ossetia, north of the Republic of Georgia.

Transdniestria (officially: Pridnestrovie) is undergoing an uneasy peace with Moldova after having been attacked by Moldovan troops in 1992; less than two years after its declaration of independence. A ceasefire is being kept under the watchful eyes of a multilateral team of peacekeepers, of which Russia forms part. Pridnestrovie, Ukraine and Moldova also participate with troops and OSCE is part of the arrangement with observers. Less than 1,500 troops make up the peacekeeping contingent, with under 400 of those supplied by Russia.

For Kosovo, the peace is kept by NATO troops, many of which are sent by the United States. There are more than ten times as many foreign troops in Kosovo than in Pridnestrovie.

The United States is the world's foremost supporter of a plan by U.N. mediator Martti Ahtisaari that would give independence to the Albanian majority of the Serbian province against the objections of Serbia's wishes and the Serbian minority in the region. Serbia wants to grant Kosovo only broad autonomy, which is still more than Moldova has ever offered to Transdniestria or to Moldova's once-restive Gagauz region.

Waiting for independence

As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pointed out, the world has a number of unresolved conflicts and territorial disputes that predate Kosovo.

These older conflicts involve millions of people who are being denied their right to self-determination and it would only be fair to deal with them before Kosovo, a much newer situation.
A list of them includes:

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is a de facto independent republic located in northern Cyprus. It declared independence in 1983. It has existed under self-rule since 1975 as the Turkish Cypriot Federated Republic.

Taiwan, the world's 16th largest economy, is governed by the largely-unrecognized Republic of China. A territorial claim by mainland China prevents it from gaining U.N. membership. This conflict has remained unresolved since 1949.

Abkhazia declared independence in 1992. In the Soviet Union it was a union republic - just like Georgia - and it was not part of Georgia until Stalin (an ethnic Georgian) demoted Abkhazia's status and made it part of Georgia against the will of the people. When the Soviet Union fell, Abkhazia sought independence.

Nagorno Karabakh declared independence in 1992 but was attacked by Azerbaijan which never recognized the right of the Armenian residents to self-determination. It is designated a "frozen conflict" with a tense ceasefire in place.

The State of Palestine declared independence in 1988. It has representations in 81 different countries and observer status at the United Nations. More than 100 states now recognize the State of Palestine, and 20 more grant a more limited form of diplomatic status to the Palestinian delegations, but despite the will of its people Palestine is not yet a sovereign country.

The Republic of South Ossetia, located north of Georgia, declared independence in 1991. Georgia never recognized this independence and fought an unsuccessful war to gain control of the territory. The population is in favor of independence.

Somaliland was independent before Somalia was established. It then withdrew from the union and declared independence in 1991, but Somalia and the international community has not yet recognized this divorce.

Western Sahara (officially the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, or SADR) declared independence in 1976. The United Nations want to hold a referendum on self-determination and sovereign statehood which has been blocked by Morocco.

Not on the list is Chechnya which was 'de facto' independent from 1996 until 1999. Its government failed to achieve diplomatic recognition and is no longer in control of the territory. With a more open policy towards recognition, and a quicker way of integrating new states into the international community, it is possible that Chechnya would have had sovereign statehood today.

As for the other states - those on the list - millions of people are living in legal limbo in these states. They are under the 'de facto' sovereign control of their own fate but without international recognition. Their unrecognized governments do everything that recognized governments do, but are unable to successfully interact with the international community due to a lack of diplomatic ties and diplomatic recognition.

All of these states are older than the 1999 Kosovo situation, which is why Sergei Lavrov points out that they should be resolved first.

Pridnestrovie, or Transnistria as it is called in Romanian, declared independence in 1990 - a full year before the Republic of Moldova declared its own independence. A 17 year old unresolved territorial claim by Moldova has prevented Pridnestrovie from obtaining international recognition, despite meeting all the requirements for sovereign statehood under international law. (With information from The Washington Post)

See also:
» Russia's opposition tells Condi to back off on Kosovo [1]
» Memo to State: Face up to reality [2]

On the web:
» Transdniestria overview [3]