GEORGIA: European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana backs Georgia in row with Russia over breakaway region of Abkhazia

Record ID: 643598

  • Title: GEORGIA: European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana backs Georgia in row with Russia over breakaway region of Abkhazia
  • Date: 6th June 2008
  • Summary: (W4) BATUMI, GEORGIA (JUNE 5, 2008) (REUTERS) JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) GEORGIAN PRESIDENT MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI SAYING: "They clearly know what we want, we clearly know what we want. What we want is for Russia to respect our sovereignty, our territorial integrity, to respect international law ... and on all the rest we can move forward and we can find common language. There is no other issue that we can not solve together with Russia." GEORGIAN OFFICIALS LISTENING SOLANA AND SAAKASHVILI SHAKING HANDS AND LEAVING THE NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 21st June 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Georgia
  • Country: Georgia
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAD271HJITBKDDWX60EU8CFKWAS
  • Story Text: European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Georgia as diplomatic effort to ease tension over Abkhazia dispute, which has caused alarm in the West, promises to build deeper ties with Georgia, boosts the country in its row with Russia over a breakaway region.
    European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana promised to build deeper ties on Thursday (May 5) with Georgia, boosting the ex-Soviet state in its row with Russia over a breakaway region.
    Solana travelled to Georgia a day before its president, Mikheil Saakashvili meets Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev for talks that could be a watershed in their volatile dispute over Georgia's separatist Abkhazia region.
    The Georgian leader said Medvedev had a more conciliatory style than his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, and said he hoped that could translate into an improvement in relations.
    Speaking in Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi after a dinner with Saakashvili, Solana took Russia to task for a series of steps which Western governments believe have sharply escalated tension over Abkhazia.
    "These decisions are not wise decisions on the part of the Russian government, I think that they do not contribute to the solution of the problems. And they do not contribute to a solution of these problems and they contribute to raising the temperature which is not something we need today. If anything is needed it is to lower the temperature," Solana said at an outdoor news conference on the shore of the Black Sea.
    He also said that he arrived on behalf of the European Union to show once again the friendship, the deep relationship, that Georgia had with the EU.
    Western diplomats say the row over Abkhazia, which threw off Georgian control in a 1990s war, has escalated to the point where it would take only a small spark to ignite new fighting.
    The dispute has caused alarm in the West because Georgia is part of a crescent of ex-Soviet states where Russia and the West are competing for control over vital energy transit routes.
    Georgia's allies in Europe and the United States say Moscow is largely responsible for the new tension.
    Moscow pulled out of a trade embargo on Abkhazia this year and sent in extra troops to counter what it said was an imminent Georgian attack.
    Georgia, which wants to join NATO and the EU, says it has no plans to attack the region and accused Russia of trying to annex part of its territory.
    A U.N. report concluded last month that a Russian air force jet had shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane over Abkhazia, though Russia denied involvement.
    Saakashvili is to meet Medvedev, who was sworn in as president last month, in Russia's second city of St Petersburg on Friday (May 6).
    "They clearly know what we want, we clearly know what we want.
    What we want is for Russia to respect our sovereignty, our territorial integrity, to respect international law ... and on all the rest we can move forward and we can find common language. There is no other issue that we can not solve together with Russia," the Georgian leader said.
    Solana will on Friday travel to the separatists' capital Sukhumi, a short journey from Batumi along the Black Sea coast. The city still bears the scars of the 1990s fighting, with many buildings wrecked or deserted.
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