Lavrov Comments on Bases

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference in Warsaw on May 16 that he met with his Georgian counterpart Salome Zourabichvili on a sidelines of the Council of Europe Summit being held there.

Lavrov said the two Ministers decided that the heads of Russian and Georgian delegations in charge of talks over the military bases will agree over a date and venue of the next round of talks. He also said that no in-depth discussion or talks were held with his Georgian counterpart in Warsaw over these military bases.

?An issue of Russian bases? withdrawal is, in principle, already decided by the top political leadership of Russia. Now it is required from the professionals [experts from Russian and Georgian sides] to agree how to carry out this withdrawal. We would have agreed long time ago if we talked professionally. Using this process of negotiations for political games only hinders this process and makes it difficult,? Sergey Lavrov said.

The Georgian side welcomed a recent proposal by the Russian side over the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Batumi and Akhalkalaki, which according to Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze, envisaged the closure of bases before February, 2008. However, Burjanadze said that there are some issues which still remain disputable, but she did not elaborate.

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