Russian, Georgian Foreign Ministers Discuss Conflicts

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described as “constructive” the recent the talks with his Georgian counterpart Gela Bezhuashvili, which took place on a sideline of a session of the Committee of Ministers from the Council of Europe member states in Strasbourg on May 18-19.
 
Sergey Lavrov and Gela Bezhuashvili discussed bilateral relations and conflict resolution issues, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
 
“I asked him [Bezhuashvili] not to create artificial problems around the peacekeepers… We want that the peacekeepers to have normal working conditions there,” Lavrov said.

Sergey Lavrov welcomed the creation of a joint Georgian-South Ossetian working group, which will develop a joint peace program on conflict resolution.
 
He also hailed setting up a consortium by the Georgian, Abkhaz, Russian, and Armenian sides, which will rehabilitate the Abkhaz section of the railway linking Russia with Georgia and Armenia.
 
However, the Russian Foreign Minister expressed concern over “Tbilisi’s refusal” to approve the documents on security guarantees and non-resumption of hostilities both regarding the Abkhaz and South Ossetian conflicts.

Lavrov said that Bezhuashvili promised to accelerate the process aiming at new registration of the internally displaced persons in the Gali district of breakaway Abkhazia.

“I regret that the Georgian side drags out the process of registration of those persons, who have already returned to the Gali district,” Lavrov said.