MR. JOHNDROE: Good morning. The President received his regular intelligence briefings this morning. He also received an update on the ongoing situation in Georgia, as well as a preliminary update on Secretary Rice's trip to Brussels.

Let me make a few points about what happened in Brussels today at the North Atlantic Council. Secretary Rice met with NATO allies today in an extraordinary session with her foreign minister counterparts to discuss Georgia. NATO was unanimous in their support for Georgia's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and desire to provide humanitarian and other assistance to Georgia.

NATO sent a firm message to Russia to immediately withdraw its forces to positions held prior to the outbreak of hostilities and honor its commitments. NATO also expressed its alarm about reports of Russia's deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure, and called Russia's actions disproportionate and inconsistent with its peacekeeping role. NATO stressed the urgency of swift, complete and good-faith implementation of the agreement, including the rapid deployment of an international monitoring mechanism.

NATO also agreed on an initial package of assistance that includes dispatching a number of NATO teams such as civil emergency planning teams to assess critical infrastructure; defense planning teams to assess military capacity, airspace management and cyber-defense; to also assess the damage caused by military action and to help restore critical services necessary for normal public life and economic activity. Allies are also working bilaterally, as well as together, as well as with international organizations, to provide rapid humanitarian assistance.

And on that, I would note that the Department of Defense briefed this morning and gave an update on U.S. humanitarian assistance to Georgia, including the number of air flights and the equipment that we've moved in to help the many Georgians who have been -- especially those internally displaced and need U.S. assistance. So DOD is briefing on the amount of U.S. assistance that's flowing into Georgia right now.

Let me make a few more points about what NATO also agreed to do. The United States and our NATO allies took the extraordinary step of agreeing to create a NATO-Georgia commission that will upgrade NATO's relationship with Georgia, similar to mechanisms in place with the Ukraine -- the NATO-Ukraine Council. The Alliance is also "considering seriously the implications of Russia's actions for the NATO-Russia relationship," and stated that "it cannot continue with business as usual with Russia." NATO reaffirmed the commitment made by allies in Bucharest that Georgia and Ukraine will become members of NATO.

Secretary Rice is also meeting this afternoon with the EU troika representatives in Brussels to discuss the situation.

One announcement related to that: Secretary Rice was scheduled to lead a delegation to the closing ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing this coming weekend. Because of ongoing events around the world she is no longer going to be leading that delegation. Secretary Elaine Chao of Labor will now be the head of that delegation. The rest of the delegation remains unchanged and we'll have a release on that shortly.

Also, on Tropical Storm Fay, the federal government continues to communicate and coordinate with state and local governments throughout the region, particularly the state of Florida, in response to this tropical storm. We recommend people listen to local authorities, remain vigilant, and heed storm warnings as the potential for damage continues. We will also continue to monitor the storm. There are some concerns that it would head back out to sea and reform or restrengthen. And one note also: Federal resources have been pre-deployed, but none have been requested at this time.

And a note also: We will release the President's remarks that he's going to give in New Orleans tomorrow. We're going to release those this afternoon unembargoed so you have those ahead of time.

And with that, I am happy to take your questions.

Olivier.

seen at 09:00, 19 August in Whitehouse Press Briefings. Email this to a friend.
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