WASHINGTON – President Bush (search) and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili (search) agreed Thursday that democracies in the former Soviet republics need to be bolstered.
Specifically, they discussed the case of Ukraine (search), where a hotly disputed runoff election led to a second vote on Dec. 26. Saakashvili vacationed in the western Carpathian mountains this week with losing presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych (search).
In a phone call Thursday, Bush and Saakashvili agreed on “the need to strengthen democratic institutions and strengthen democracy,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. “They agreed on the importance of working together, including with Russia, to find peaceful political solutions to political conflicts in the region.”