U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney departs Tuesday on a four-nation tour to support U.S. allies Georgia and Ukraine amid a chill in relations with Russia over its military conflict with Georgia.
Talks on energy and how to offset Russian oil dominance are also high on the agenda for the visit, which comes on the heels of a decision Monday by European Union leaders to freeze strategic partnership talks with Moscow until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia.
Cheney will be the highest ranking U.S. official to visit Tbilisi since Russian tanks rolled into its smaller neighbor in early August and fought a five-day war over the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia.
The White House led global condemnation of Russia's subsequent decision to recognize the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, calling it "irresponsible," but laid out no concrete retaliatory plans.
U.S. President George W. Bush said last month that Moscow's diplomatic gesture violated a French-brokered August 12 ceasefire deal, and is reportedly mulling scrapping a U.S.-Russia civilian nuclear cooperation pact.
Exacerbating international tensions, Russia has withdrawn some forces but left others deep inside Georgian territory, serving in what Moscow describes as a peacekeeping mission. Tbilisi has labeled them an occupying force.
Cheney will provide a "strong message of reassurance to our friends in the region," his national security advisor John Hannah told reporters ahead of the trip, which includes stops in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy.
"The overriding priority, especially in Baku, Tbilisi and Kiev, will be the same: a clear and simple message that the United States has a deep and abiding interest in the well-being and security of this part of the world." Cheney arrives in Baku on Wednesday for talks with President Ilham Aliyev and energy representatives. Azerbaijan saw some oil exports headed for the West via Georgia suspended in August due to the Russia-Georgia conflict.
The U.S. vice-president then heads to Tbilisi on Thursday for talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power in 2004 and has led his country's drive to join the European Union and the NATO military alliance.
Proclaiming Georgia as a democratic ally, the United States has sent air force planes and naval ships to bring humanitarian aid - $5.75 million worth has been offered by Bush - over the last three weeks, and denied Moscow's charges that aid shipments could be used to mask a naval buildup in the Black Sea.
Cheney will then move on to Ukraine, which also harbors aspirations for E.U. and NATO membership, for talks with President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday and Friday.
He then goes to Italy for the last leg of the trip, to address a security and intelligence forum in Lake Como and hold talks with world leaders including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and energy executives.
He will wind up his tour in Rome, holding talks with Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
A flurry of European diplomacy in Moscow and Tbilisi is set to follow Cheney's trip and Monday's EU decision to postpone talks on a partnership deal with Russia.
EU-Russia relations are currently governed by a partnership accord that dates from 1997, when Russia was still suffering economically from the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, a senior U.S. administration official said last week that Russia's military action in Georgia has given fresh urgency to the planned Nabucco pipeline, which would bring natural gas from Turkey to Austria.
"The United States has had a priority for quite some time in trying to lead an effort to encourage this diversification of energy infrastructure and pipelines and supplies, particularly to Europe, of gas," the official said on condition of anonymity.
"These recent events ... reinforce the sense that that basic strategy is important and critical, and one that has to be pursued, if anything, with greater energy by us and by our European partners." Bush decided to dispatch Cheney on the trip despite the arrival of Hurricane Gustav in New Orleans, after both canceled scheduled speeches Monday at the Republican National Convention, where nomination festivities to officially tap John McCain as the party's candidate in November were toned down due to storm concerns.