French, Finnish FMs Call for Ceasefire, Troops Pullout
French and Finnish Foreign Ministers Bernard Kouchner and Alexander Stubb, arrived in Georgia and held late night talks with President Saakashvili.
They are expected to travel to Moscow on Monday in an attempt to broker peace between the parties.
“Objectively controlled ceasefire,” Kouchner, whose country holds EU presidency, told reporters in Tbilisi, should be the first step towards de-escalation.
“The second point access to the victim for humanitarian help and you need a ceasefire for that; the third point is a withdrawal of troops on the both sides, the controlled withdrawal, which means we need controllers, watchers [of the withdrawal process]; the fourth point is comeback to the political process,” the French Foreign Minister said.
“What I have been trying to stress with Foreign Minister Kouchner throughout the day today is that we must get the ceasefire first; that’s where all it starts from,” the Finnish Foreign Minister, who also holds the rotating chairmanship of the OSCE, said.
When asked to comment on Russia’s role in the current crisis, Stubb responded: “It is no time for psychoanalysis.”
“We are now in the business of crisis management, we are now in the business to broker peace; we are not in the business of seeking who has done what, when, where and how,” Stubb said.
He also said that change of the peacekeeping format in the region would definitely be raised, but “what that can be we do not know at this stage yet.” Ceasefire is the top priority for now, he added.
