U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden, said on February 7, that Washington “will not agree with Russia on everything.”

“For example, the United States will not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. We will not recognize a sphere of influence. It will remain our view that sovereign states have the right to make their own decisions and choose their own alliances,” Biden said while addressing the Security Conference in Munich.
 
He, however, also said that the United States and Russia “can disagree and still work together where our interests coincide.”

Georgia’s Defense Minister, Davit Sikharulidze, who accompanies President Saakashvili at the conference in Munich told the Georgian journalists that the U.S. Vice President’s statement was “a clear message to Russia.”