Base withdrawal negotiations drag on

The Messenger.
Thursday, May 19, 2005, #090 (0864)

Despite the frequent top-level meetings between Georgian and Russian
officials, no agreement has yet been reached on the withdrawal of
Russia’s military bases in Georgia, although there are signs that a
deal is close.

Georgia has been boosted in its efforts to have Russia remove its bases
by statements of support from Western countries and organizations,
most notably U.S. President Bush, but it is clear that it is up to
Georgia and Russia to reach an agreement. The question for Georgia
is how this should best be achieved.

Following six years of Russian dallying after Moscow agreed to
withdraw its bases back in 1999, the Georgian government earlier this
year called for a period of intense negotiations to finally reach
an agreement on the timeframe and terms of withdrawal. Parliament
followed up on this on March 10 by adopting a resolution charging
the government with declaring the Russian bases illegal and taking
measures to unilaterally force their withdrawal should a bilateral
agreement not be reached by May 15.

This resolution was supported at the time by neither government
ministers nor Speaker of Parliament Nino Burjanadze, all of whom
sought to distance themselves from a resolution unlikely to lead to
warmer Russian-Georgian relations. The resolution was criticized by
the Russian ministry of foreign affairs, which is representing the
Russian Federation at negotiations, as hindering the negotiations
process by forcing an artificial deadline on both sides. There may be
some truth in this, but on the other hand it is clear that a great
deal has been achieved in the two months or so since it was adopted
than in the six years prior.

May 15 has now passed, and the resolution has come into force. But
the government has backed away from acting on its recommendations.
The Russian bases have not been declared illegal; visas for Russian
soldiers have not been withheld; the bases have not had their
electricity switched off. The only Russian military installation
suffering is the central Russian military office in Tbilisi who,
according to Kommersant, had its water service cut of this week because
of debts to the Tbilisi water system. Presidential spokesperson Gela
Charkviani said on Saturday that progress had been made in the talks,
and that it was important to give negotiators more time to reach
an agreement.

In Russia, however, both the media and government officials have
played up the significance of the resolution, stating that the
livelihood of the Russian soldiers may be endangered by Georgia’s
actions. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that that
Russia is doing all it can “to ensure that nothing threaten the
normal life, property, armament as well as military equipment of
those Russian citizens who are on Georgian territory and who work in
these military bases as well as the bases itself.” The Russian Duma,
meanwhile, is preparing to adopt a counter-resolution calling on the
government to take anti-Georgian measures such as raising the price of
electricity exported to Georgia, refusing to give visas to Georgians,
and deporting many of those Georgians currently living in Russia.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia Sergei Bagapsh
and Eduard Kokoiti have offered to host the Russian bases being
withdrawn from Georgia. In Russia, Vice President of the Russian
Academy for Geopolitical Problems Leonid Ivashov suggests that the
bases could be relocated to Abkhazia and Armenia. It will, of course,
be impossible for Georgia to accept the relocation of one of the bases
to Abkhazia. Nor is the government willing to agree to the bases in
Batumi and Akhalkalaki becoming anti-terrorist centers as this would
involve little more than a name change.

Back in Georgia, opposition parties have called on the government
to take a stronger line and act on the recommendations in the
parliamentary resolution. They also believe that Georgia should
insist that Russia’s peacekeepers also withdraw from South Ossetia
and Abkhazia, and further, that Georgia should withdraw from the CIS.

The government should be wary of taking too hard a line, however. It
seems certain that at some point soon an agreement will be reached and
the Russian bases eventually withdrawn: it is not necessary to further
irritate Moscow in forcing this through. The Georgian government has
linked the withdrawal of the bases with new, friendlier relations
with Moscow, and it is important that this remains a foreign policy
priority.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress