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TBILISI: Georgian Foreign Minister Visits Moscow

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  • TBILISI: Georgian Foreign Minister Visits Moscow

    GEORGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS MOSCOW

    Democratic Azerbaijan
    Nov 1 2006

    Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili is in Moscow on November
    1 to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in an
    attempt to lay the ground for easing the current tensions between
    the two countries.

    The meeting, which will take place on the sideline of the summit of
    Foreign Ministers from the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization
    (BSEC), will be the first high-level talks since the worst crisis of
    recent years erupted between Russia and Georgia in late September.

    "We are determined to be constructive and are ready to take into
    consideration Moscow's interests in the Caucasus. But we do expect
    the same from the Russian side as well. We are going to Moscow to see
    what Russia wants," Gela Bezhuashvili told Georgian reporters in Baku,
    Azerbaijan prior to his departure to Moscow.

    In an interview with the BBC Gela Bezhashvili said that his priority
    will be to get Russian economic sanctions lifted.

    Bezhuashvili, accompanied by State Minister for Conflict Resolution
    Issues Merab Antadze, had to travel to Moscow via Baku, as direct
    transportation links with Georgia were cut by Russia on October 3.

    Russian news agencies reported on October 31, quoting an unnamed
    Kremlin official, that Russian President Vladimir Putin declined a
    Georgian offer to meet with visiting Foreign Minister Bezhuashvili.

    "The issue of possible talks between the President of Russia and
    the Georgian Foreign Minister was discussed on the eve of Gela
    Bezhuashvili's arrival in Moscow. However, President Putin decided to
    decline this meeting," Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies quoted
    the Kremlin source.

    But Bezhuashvili denied the report. "It was not planned at all. I do
    not know why this news is disseminated by Russian agencies," he told
    reporters on November 1.

    Bezhuashvili told reporters on October 31 that his talks with the
    Russian officials are also aimed to prepare the ground for a potential
    meeting between President Saakashvili and his Russian counterpart,
    which, if agreed to, will most likely take place in Minsk, Belarus
    on the sidelines of the CIS summit in late November.

    President Saakashvili has expressed his readiness for top-level talks
    several times recently. After an informal EU-Russian summit in Lahti,
    President Putin said on October 20 that Moscow is "quite satisfied with
    the signals manifesting Tbilisi's readiness to improve our relations."

    Meanwhile, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov said
    on October 31 that Georgia should sign an agreement with the Abkhaz
    and South Ossetian sides on the non-use of force.

    Georgia has so far refused to sign the agreements, saying that an
    international peacekeeping force should replace the current Russian-led
    peacekeeping operation as the guarantor of such an agreement.

    "First of all, Georgia should sign these agreements... If Georgia
    follows this path and not the path of threats and provocations, which
    consistently take place, the atmosphere will change [in Russo-Georgian
    relations]," RIA Novosti news agency quoted Ivanov as saying.

    The Georgian Foreign Minster already met with his Armenian counterpart
    Vardan Oskanian in Moscow on November 1 on the sidelines of the BSEC
    summit. Armenian businessmen are also reportedly suffering from
    Russia's economic sanctions on Georgia because they are forced to
    redirect import routes, which increases expenditures from 7% to 20%.
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