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%.