Following the suspension of the OSCE Border Monitoring Operation (BMO) at the Russo-Georgian border, the terms and modalities of a planned training program for the Georgian border guards, also under the aegis of OSCE, has triggered a new wave of confrontation between Tbilisi and Moscow.
Discussion in the OSCE over launching the “Border Management Training Assistance Programme for Georgian Border Guards” started shortly after Russia vetoed a prolongation of the BMO at the Chechen, Ingush and Daghestani sections of the Russo-Georgian border. Russia supports the training but Tbilisi and Moscow still remain at odds over a number of issues, including the venue of the training program.
The issue was discussed at the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on March 10. Georgia, which announced that OSCE-led border guard training is in danger of being thwarting because of the “unconstructive” position of Russia, dispatched Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Gomiashvili to Vienna, who addressed the Permanent Council and outlined Tbilisi’s position over this issue. This official position includes the following demands:
1. Ensuring that training of Georgian Border guards takes place on location, i.e. in the mountains (the Russo-Georgian border lies mainly in mountainous regions);
2. Ensuring that the training is carried out with all corresponding former OSCE BMO attire and equipment;
3. Ensuring that the training starts no later than April 1, 2005
Meanwhile, Russia insists on this training being carried conducted outside Georgia and on limited use only of the equipment which was available for the BMO.
Russian envoy to the OSCE Permanent Council Alexey Borodavkin elaborated Russia’s position at the session in Vienna on March 10 and said that because of the “almost total absence of any border management experience or capability in the OSCE, the actual training of the Georgian border guards should take place abroad, at training centers already established in OSCE participating States.”
By making these demands Russia appears to be ruling out out even the minor possibility that this Georgian border guard training will be used for border monitoring purposed. Borodavkin also said that “any attempts to include monitoring functions along the Georgian-Russian border in the draft OSCE training program for the Georgian border guards will not receive the support of the Russian Federation.”
In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Georgian service, Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Gomiashvili said on March 11 that because of its “unconstructive” position, Russia has become “isolated” at the OSCE Permanent Council.
Both the U.S. and the EU expressed “strong support” towards Georgia’s position over the border guard training program.
“We are gravely disappointed that the OSCE has not been able to respond positively to an urgent request for assistance by a participating State. We urge all participating States to come to the assistance of another participating State, and to actually work on the details of this assistance,” U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Paul W. Jones.
In a statement made at the OSCE Permanent Council, the EU stressed that “the training can best be provided ‘on the spot’, in the area where its effects are to be implemented.”
Moreover, the EU expressed its readiness to contribute to the international border monitoring mission at the Russo-Georgian border, as demanded by the Georgian side. “[The EU] is currently exploring options to this end,” the EU statement made at OSCE Permanent Council says.
But it seems that the Georgian side has little hope for a positive outcome for its efforts over the border guard training program. In an interview with the RFE/RL Georgian service, Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Gomiashvili also said that this particular example with the training program of the Georgian border guards demonstrates the “weakness of those international organizations wherein Russia is a member and where each member state has a right of veto.”
