RUSSIA READY TO CONSIDER EU PROPOSALS ON “FROZEN” CIS CONFLICTS

RIA Novosti, Russia
Aug 31 2005

MOSCOW, August 31 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is ready to consider any
proposals the European Union may have on “frozen conflicts” in the
Commonwealth of Independent States, a senior diplomat said Wednesday.

Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s permanent representative to Europe,
told a news conference that the EU was ready to discuss and help
resolve two regional conflicts in Georgia, the stand-off between
the self-proclaimed republic of Transdnestr and Moldova, and the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“We are ready to consider any proposals be they in the political
or material sense,” Chizhov said, stressing that this idea did not
affect the format of talks on resolving the conflicts.

“All conflicts have their own formats for talks,” the Russian
representative said. “Maybe they are not ideal, but they are the best
achieved through the sufferings of the parties to these conflicts.

These are the only formats that are acceptable to all countries today.”

Chizhov said the EU should assist conflict resolution within the
framework of these formats and not through “shattering” them. He added
this position had been officially registered in a joint Russia-EU
statement adopted in 2003 in Rome.