Saakashvili Outlines Terms Ahead of Talks with Medvedev
President Saakashvili has outlined three conditions he said were necessary to defuse tension with Russia.
“We are ready to extend the hand of friendship to Russia,” he said on June 5 – a day before he departed for St. Petersburg where he will meet his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, on the sidelines of an economic forum.
“Our conditions are very clear: illegally deployed [Russian] military units should be withdrawn; ongoing construction of military infrastructure should immediately cease; implementation of the [Russian president’s] illegal April 16 decree should be immediately rescinded.
He said that Moscow’s April 16 decision to establish official ties with breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia was “totally destroying post-WW II and post-Cold War order in Europe.”
Saakashvili was speaking at a joint news conference with visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana at his seaside residence in Bobokvati, outside Batumi in the Adjarian Autonomous Republic.
Solana will travel to Sokhumi on June 6 to hold talks with the authorities of the breakaway region.
“We want Europe’s participation in resolving these conflicts,” Saakashvili said. “We need as never before Europe’s civilized and soft approach in order to resolve these issues.”
“Georgia is open to finding a 21st century solution to the conflicts of the 20th century, instead of the brutal solution of the 19th century, which is currently being imposed on us.”
