Georgian and Russian negotiators are holding talks in Moscow from March 23-25 over a set of issues which currently top the agenda of the two countries’ bilateral ties. It is most likely that the issue of the Russian military bases still stationed in Georgia will top the agenda of these negotiations, which are being held as part of an agreement reached by the Georgian and Russian Foreign Ministers in Tbilisi in February. These talks are being held in an attempt to narrow the gap between Tbilisi and Moscow over the timeframe of withdrawal of these Russian military bases from Georgia.
Georgian chief negotiator Merab Antadze, the Deputy Foreign Minister, outlined a schedule for these talks shortly before the negotiations started in Moscow. He said that the talks will start with discussions of the military bases and that later the two sides would move to other issues, including a proposal to set up joint anti-terrorist centers; easing visa requirements between the two countries; border delimitation; and conflict resolution issues in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Igor Savolsky, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special envoy, who leads the Russian side at the talks, also spoke about Moscow’s position in an interview with Interfax news, published ahead of the negotiations on March 23. The chief Russian negotiator said that Moscow will offer new proposals over the pullout of these bases, which, as he put it, are fully in line with Georgia’s interests expressed during the talks between President Mikheil Saakashvili and Foreign Minister Igor Lavrov in February; he refrained, however, from unveilling any details.
“These [proposals], we think, completely take into consideration the interests of the Georgian side. But unveiling details of these proposals – before talks are underway – would be inappropriate,” Igor Savolsky said.
But on March 10 Chief of the Department for International Cooperation of the Russian Ministry of Defense Col. Gen. Anatoly Mazurkevich voiced, as he put it, “the official position” of Russia, saying that that Russia would need three-four years to withdraw its bases from Georgia.
Deputy Commander of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Col. Gen. Alexander Rukshin reiterated on March 16 that the timeframe of three to four years “is the limit” that Russia can agree on for withdrawal of its troops from Georgia.
Moscow claims that this period and hundreds of millions of dollars is needed for the creation of new infrastructure in Russia for those Russian servicemen who will be pulled out from Georgia.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov said on March 22 that the “withdrawal of our military bases from Georgia will cost USD 250-300 million,” Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies reported. “These expenses include: withdrawal of troops and military hardware, accommodation of servicemen, construction of new places of re-location [for the Russian troops] and the construction of warehouses and barracks,” Ivanov told reporters.
He added that these expenses are an “additional burden” for the Russian budget. “Our Finance Ministry will launch funding for the pullout only after a relevant agreement is signed [with Georgia] and enforced. The date for the signing of this agreement will be defined during [forthcoming] talks,” Ivanov said.
The March 23-25 talks in Moscow are first of their kind to follow the Georgian Parliament’s decision to approve a resolution against the Russian military bases on March 10. This resolution instructs the executive government of Georgia to take measures, including the halting the issuance of entry visas to Russian military servicemen, if an agreement over a “reasonable” timeframe for their withdrawal is not reached with Russia before May 15, 2005. The Georgian parliamentarians consider the period before January 1, 2006 as a “reasonable” timeframe for these negotiations to conclude.
In an interview with Interfax on March 23, chief Russian negotiator Igor Savolsky also commented on the proposal to set up a joint Russo-Georgian anti-terrorist center in Georgia, which is also being discussed during the Moscow talks. “We are offering to set up this center by using part of the infrastructure which is currently available [because of] the Russian military bases. [The Russian side is also offering that] these centers [can] start functioning before the removal of Russian bases from the Georgian territory,” Savolsky said.
He indicated however, that the new anti-terrorist centers that Moscow and Tbilisi are discussing “have nothing in common” with the military bases. Georgian negotiators expressed fears earlier that Moscow was attempting to simply re-label the military bases into ‘anti-terrorists centers’ and thus create conditions for a continued military presence in Georgia.