Russia to begin withdrawal from Georgian bases this year
By MARIA DANILOVA
AP Worldstream
May 30, 2005
Russia agreed Monday to begin withdrawing from two Soviet-era bases
in Georgia by the end of the year, handing a victory to the Caucasus
Mountain nation that is increasingly looking to the West for military
and economic ties.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the withdrawal _ which
would be completed by 2008 _ would take place “without any kind of
discomfort for the soldiers” and he said the pact would “help further
develop our relations.”
The agreement was “an important and constructive step,” said Lavrov’s
Georgian counterpart, Salome Zurabishvili. “We have achieved the goal
which we have long been working for.”
Lavrov said troops and equipment will be withdrawn first from the
military base at the southern city of Akhalkalaki and then from the
Black Sea port of Batumi. About 3,000 troops are stationed at the
two bases, which are holdovers from the Soviet era; two others were
closed over the past decade.
Russia commits itself to start withdrawing _ beginning mainly with
heavy equipment _ this year, according to the agreement, whose text
was posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry Web site. Zurabishvili said
a formal agreement would have to be signed and ratified by Russia’s
parliament in order for Russia to allocate funds to close the bases.
The deal is a victory for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili,
who has sought to move his country out of the shadow of its giant
neighbor and toward deeper economic and military relations with the
United States and Europe.
At a news conference at Georgia’s embassy in Moscow, Zurabishvili said
the base dispute “is only one of the issues we have in Georgian-Russian
relations.”
“This agreement doesn’t mean we have solved everything,” she said.
But she said it was a good start, and that if managed correctly
it could build trust “instead of becoming a process or humiliation
or failure.”
Georgia had accused Russia of procrastination in withdrawing the final
troop contingents in order to keep a presence in the country that the
Kremlin regards as part of its historical sphere of influence. Earlier
this year, Georgian officials raised the prospect of declaring the
bases illegal next year if there were no progress in negotiations.
In recent talks, Georgia had pressed for Russia to complete the
withdrawal by the beginning of 2008, but Russian officials had said
Moscow might need more than a decade.
Zurabishvili said the statement did not include a Georgian pledge to
refrain from hosting bases of other countries but suggested it does
not intend to do so.
“Georgia does not wish for the military presence of any country on
its territory,” she said.
In addition to the bases, Russia and Georgia have sparred over issues
such as Russia’s close relations with the governments in Abkhazia and
South Ossetia _ two regions that broke away from Georgia during wars
in the 1990s.
Russia in turn has watched with dismay as Saakashvili pursues closer
relations with the West and boosted military cooperation with the
United States.
In the second program of its kind, a group of U.S. military instructors
are currently training about 2,000 Georgian troops who will serve in
international peacekeeping operations. Georgia also has more than 850
soldiers and other military personnel serving in Iraq as part of the
U.S.-led military effort there.
Lavrov expressed hope that the two countries will be able to reach
a final agreement on the border by the end of the year.
Neighboring Azerbaijan, meanwhile, reiterated concerns that withdrawal
of Russian military equipment from Georgia could be moved to Armenia
and find its way into the tense area where Azerbaijani and ethnic
Armenian forces have faced off since a 1990s war over the disputed
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.