Lavrov Raises ‘Military Supplies’ after Talks with Clinton

U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, have both acknowledged after meeting in Geneva on March 6 that differences remained on number of issues, including on Georgia.

During a press conference after the meeting Lavrov said: “We want our partners… to show restraint in military supplies to those countries where, including very recently, those weapons have been used very close to our borders.”

The remarks were apparently made in reference to Georgia; but U.S. officials, who briefed reporters afterward, said they had not read Georgia into the Minister’s comments, Reuters reported.

Clinton said after the meeting: "We had frank exchanges about areas where we still disagree. We need more trust, predictability, and progress that only comes from working together. Georgia is one of those issues. We talked about ways that we could reduce the violence and make progress in the Geneva process."

Both Clinton and Lavrov said that it was a fresh start for the bilateral relations.

“This is a fresh start not only to improve our bilateral relationship but to lead the world in important areas,” Clinton said.

“We understood that our bilateral relations are getting a chance today we cannot afford to miss,” Lavrov said. “We exchanged our vision of immediate priorities in our relations. I am convinced, and the Secretary of State will share my opinion, these priorities largely coincide.”

He also said that “it would be an exaggeration to say that we agreed on everything.”

In last few days, during her European trip, the U.S. Secretary of State said number of times that the U.S. remained committed in supporting Georgia’s NATO aspiration and its territorial integrity.

“We must never recognize the breakaway Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, or accept Russia’s assertions of spheres of influence over unwilling nations,” Clinton said on March 5 while addressing the NATO foreign ministerial meeting in Brussels.

Georgian senior officials hailed remarks as demonstration of the U.S. new administration’s “strong support to Georgia.” “It is clear that the United States will not leave Georgia alone,” PM Nika Gilauri said.

Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said the comments by the Secretary of State was a message to Russia that “it should have no illusion that Georgia will ever be downgraded from the top to somewhere below on the agenda.”

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)