NATO, Russia Defense Officials Spar over Georgia Bases

Russia’s ITAR-TASS news agency quotes Russia’s Defense MInistry Spokesperson as saying: “We shall leave Georgia when we consider it necessary, when we reach a mutually-acceptable accord with the Georgian side on the withdrawal of our bases. At the same time, no opinions of third countries, including NATO ones, will be taken into account by us since the presence of Russian bases in Georgia is exclusively a matter for bilateral negotiations between Moscow and Tbilisi.”

Russian defense ministry has reacted angrily to the comments by the US Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen Rademaker who, speaking in Moscow on October 7, said that that “Russia must deal with the issue of Georgia.” “The USA and NATO,” continued Rademaker, “believe that only after these obligations, assumed by Moscow five years ago, are met will it be possible to talk of the ratification of the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) treaty. So far we are not prepared to ratify this treaty.”

Russia claims it has fully complied with all its obligations under the Istanbul agreement, which called for the withdrawal of two military bases – Vaziani (near Tbilisi) and Gudauta (Abkhazia) by 2001, as well as the withdrawal of the two remaining bases – Batumi (Adjara) and Akhalkalaki (Samtskhe-Javakheti) based on a mutually agreed time-frame. Russian defense ministry has claimed it needs 11 years to withdraw from the Batumi and Akhalkalaki bases, but it hinted that it could withdraw faster if the funds came from the United States.