Xinhua General News Service
September 6, 2008 Saturday 12:25 PM EST
Abkhazia, South Ossetia legally impossible to join CSTO: Russian FM
MOSCOW Sept. 6
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday that Abkhazia and
South Ossetia cannot legally join the Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) due to their status, local press reported.
"It is judicially impossible because the members of the CSTO are
states," Lavrov said in an interview with a Russian TV channel. He
added that only a state recognized by all CSTO countries can be
granted membership.
On prospects for the recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia by other countries, the Russian foreign minister said
that the process would be not hasty.
"The recognition is an individual act of every state rather than a
collective procedure," Lavrov said
Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from central Georgian rule in
the early 1990s following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, but
their self-proclaimed independence has not been recognized
internationally.
Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states on
Aug. 26, two weeks after its recent conflict with Georgia
ended. Nicaragua has been the only country to follow suit so far.
The CSTO, a post-Soviet security alliance, comprises Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
