Russia, Georgia agree to withdrawal of bases
AFX Europe (Focus)
May 30, 2005
MOSCOW (AFX) – Moscow and Tbilisi have agreed on the pullout by the
end of 2008 of Russia’s last two Soviet-era military bases in Georgia,
signalling a resolution to a long-running and bitter dispute between
the two neighbours.
“The final pullout will be finished during 2008,” Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said, following talks in Moscow with his Georgian
counterpart Salome Zurabishvili.
“We have taken an important and constructive step. We have achieved
our goal,” Zurabishvili told journalists.
Lavrov said a joint statement detailing the precise timetable for
the withdrawal of troops and equipment will be issued later today.
However, Interfax news agency quoted a high-ranking military source
as saying that the pullout wil not begin until 2006.
About 3,000 servicemen are stationed at the bases — one in
Akhalkalaki, near the Georgian-Armenian border, the other in Batumi,
on the Black Sea coast.
The two bases date from the Soviet era, when they were part of the
Soviet Union’s south-western flank with NATO.
Russia’s refusal to make a speedy withdrawal has contributed to tense
relations with its neighbour since the collapse of the Soviet Union,
especially since Georgia’s pro-Western president Mikhail Saakashvili
came to power in the “rose revolution” of November 2003.
In another sign of a possible thaw in relations, Lavrov said there
has also been a decision made to agree, before the end of the year,
on delimitation of the Georgian-Russian border, which runs along the
Caucasus mountains range.
“We will do everything” to contribute to peaceful resolutions
of Georgia’s separatist conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia,
Lavrov added.
Moscow-backed separatist forces control both regions, which are on
the Georgian side of the rugged border.
Russia’s relationship with Georgia has long been complicated by
Moscow’s attempts to stem an erosion of its influence in the Caucasus,
where the US has become an increasingly important player.
Georgia has applied for membership in NATO and hosts a small contingent
of US military trainers, prompting Moscow to seek assurances that
foreign troops will not be allowed in after its own forces leave.
President Vladimir Putin recently said such a deplyment would “affect
our security.”
However, he has also acknowledged that Moscow could not drag its feet.
“Foreign bases of all countries in the world — if they are not
occupying troops — are there with the agreement of their partners. If
there is no such desire among our partners, then we have no choice. We
have to take this step. For better or worse, we are leaving there,”
he said.
Georgia is impoverished and has a population of less than 5 mln, but
has gained in strategic importance with the building of an oil export
pipeline that stretches from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean
with a section passing through Georgia.
Its troubled border with Russia also includes a section shared with
Chechnya, where tens of thousands of Russian troops are tied down in
the second guerrilla war in a decade.