When the big powers of Russia and the US get together this weekend to discuss how to counter the nuclear programmes of Iran and North Korea, small states like Georgia in the south Caucasus may feel like pawns on a giant diplomatic chessboard.

Georgia, which aspires to become a member of Nato and the EU, and is labouring under an economic blockade imposed by Russia as a result, has little to do with either of the two remaining members of the US-designated "axis of evil". Nonetheless it fears its future could be up for grabs when Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, meets Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, in Moscow following her visits to Japan, South Korea and China to co-ordinate the enforcement of sanctions against North Korea imposed by the UN Security Council last week.