ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 15, 2005 Friday 3:11 PM Eastern Time

EU to help Georgia control northern borders

By Alexander Mineyev

LUXEMBOURG

The European Union will help Georgia to control the northern borders
with due consideration of the Russian position and in cooperation
with Moscow, the EU foreign ministers said in Luxembourg on Friday.

The South Caucasian situation was on the agenda of their informal
meeting.

Luxembourg Foreign Minister and EU Council President Jean Asselborn
told a press conference that Georgia had asked for larger
international monitoring of its northern border and demilitarization
in South Ossetia. He said Georgia wanted to fill the gap with the end
of the OSCE observation mission mandate.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer lauded the OSCE observation
mission and said that the EU could not exchange the mission mandate
without consensus in that organization and they would be considering
another solution. Fischer said they had an open dialog with Russia on
the subject.

European Commissioner for External Relations and Neighborhood Policy
Benita Ferrero-Waldner told Itar-Tass that cooperation with Russia
was important. On one hand, Georgia wants an international mission on
the border, but, on the other hand, one must see the priorities, she
said.

Ferrero-Waldner thinks that good relations between Russia and Georgia
are a priority of the EU.

The European Union will also use the neighborhood policy for the
settlement of mothballed conflicts in the South Caucasus.

The action plans to be signed with Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan
will include human rights and settlement of conflicts,
Ferrero-Waldner said.

Economic aid is the key method the European Union will be using, she
said. A delegation of the European Union and a EU special
representative will be stationed in each of these countries and work
on the solution of these problems, she said.

The role of Russia is very important in this respect, Ferrero-Waldner
said. The settlement of conflicts on the post-Soviet territory is
part of the EU-Russia external security roadmap, which may be adopted
at the EU-Russia summit in Moscow on May 10, she said.