Sokhumi, Tskhinvali against Joint Russo-Georgian Border Control
South Ossetian and Abkhaz officials said on February 25 that they would not allow Russia and Georgia to set up joint border-crossing points on their borders with Russia.
Tamar Kovziridze, deputy economy minister and Georgia’s chief negotiator on Russian WTO membership, told Civil.Ge on February 23 that the sides had reached “an agreement in principle” on legalization of two border crossing points – one in South Ossetia (Roki Tunnel) and the other in Abkhazia (Gantiadi-Adler) – during talks in Geneva last week. The details still had to be worked out, she said, during the next round of talks in March and April.
“Nobody will be able to control the Roki tunnel [linking breakaway South Ossetia with Russia] except for the South Ossetian side,” Mikheil Mindzaev, the South Ossetian interior minister, told Rustavi 2 TV by phone. “If the Russian and Georgian sides want to jointly control the Roki tunnel, they can do it on the Georgian-South Ossetian border. Otherwise, Russia, Georgia or any other country willing to do that, will receive a categorical refusal.”
Sergey Shamba, the foreign minister of breakaway Abkhazia, said a joint Russo-Georgian border crossing point at the Abkhaz border with Russia was “impossible.” “The issue has not been discussed with us. When it comes to our territory, they should agree it with us,” he told Rustavi 2 TV by phone.
