Georgian Official: No Need to Speed up Signing of Framework Agreement

Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Merab Antadze expressed concern over the statement of his Russian counterpart Grigory Karasin, who said that officials in Tbilisi continue ?anti-Russian campaign.?
 
?What the Georgian side?s all the recent statements illustrate in fact is its desire to normalize bilateral relations,? Merab Antadze said.
 
In the interview with Russian news agency RIA Novosti on December 3 Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said that the comprehensive framework agreement between Russia and Georgia can be signed only after the relations between the two countries are improved.
 
?As for the framework agreement, there is no need to create the impression that the Georgian side is seeking to speed up its signing at any cost. There is a set of principal provisions, on which a final agreement has to be reached by the respective state commissions before we proceed to setting any timeframe for signing the document,? the Georgian diplomat said.
 
The talks over the new comprehensive framework agreement between Russia and Georgia were launched in 2001. The main source of dispute over this agreement is related with the Russia?s demand to include in the document Georgia?s binding commitment that it will never deploy foreign military bases on its soil. Although Tbilisi vows that there will be no foreign military base on its territory, the Georgian side refuses to include this provision in the agreement. Tbilisi also opposes demand of the Russian side to include the word ?strategic? in the title of the agreement.
 
The Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister shared his Russian counterpart?s approach that the signing of the framework agreement is not linked with the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia, an issue regulated by the joint declaration signed by the Georgian and Russian Foreign Ministers on May 30.
 
?It is expedient that the Russian side accelerate its intrastate procedures that will lead to the signing of a respective interstate agreement at the earliest possible date,? Merab Antadze said.

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