The U.S. tried to help Georgia lobby other countries against diplomatic recognition of the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- but it made an exception for Uzbekistan, which it didn't want to pressure for fear of endangering the military supply lines that pass through Central Asia. That's according to Spanish newspaper El Pais, quoting a Wikileaked U.S. diplomatic cable. Translation by Google:

Only three countries seconded to Russia's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Nicaragua, in September 2008 and Venezuela and Nauru, in 2009. The fear that Belarus imitate the example of Caracas caused "great excitement" to the Georgians, despite a U.S. warning against "overreaction."

Georgia appealed to the U.S. and Spain to "American pressure on states" and prevent them follow the example of Venezuela and Nicaragua. The negotiations were "successful", although as warned Assistant Secretary of Defense, Alexander Vershbow, Georgia should understand that Washington had "a limited role in some countries." The White House refused to put pressure on Uzbekistan, for example, for fear that it influenced their negotiations on transit routes to Afghanistan.

(Emphasis added.) Unfortunately WikiLeaks hasn't released the cable yet, so we can't see it for ourselves. (And this report is from more than a month ago, but I don't see anyone reporting it in English.)

This blog has focused a lot on the speculation that the U.S. may be giving Uzbekistan a pass on human rights for the sake of Uzbekistan's cooperation on the transportation of military cargo to Afghanistan. And there has been a lot of concern that the U.S.'s "reset" with Russia would, to use a very Washington phrase, "throw Georgia under the bus." But this is an intriguing mix of those two storylines. Except that we can expect the people who were worried about throwing Georgia under the bus for the sake of Russia to be silent about doing it for the sake of Uzbekistan and U.S. military supplies.

For what it's worth, I asked Abkhazia's foreign minister, Maxim Gvindjia about this, and he said he wasn't aware that that was an issue with Uzbekistan. He thought the keys to Central Asian recognition were Belarus and Ukraine going first, and to a lesser extent Kazakhstan.

And it's not clear that asking Uzbekistan to not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia would annoy Tashkent like hectoring them on human rights does, so it's not clear why the U.S. was so skittish on this. But I'll be curious to see the whole cable...