Russia, Georgia to hold talks in Prague

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Special envoys from Georgia and Russia are expected to hold talks over trade relations between the two countries in Prague in later February.

Zurab Abashidze, Georgian Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Relations with Russia, said he would hold talk with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin on implementation of the 2011 Swiss-brokered Georgia-Russia agreement.

Georgia agreed to give its OK to Russia’s membership at the World Trade Organization following the signing of Swiss-mediated agreement between Tbilisi and Moscow in November, 2011. The document envisages setting sophisticated systems for tracking and auditing of cargo passing through breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The agreement also envisages hiring of a neutral private company to carry out monitoring of cargo movement through three trade corridors, two of which run in the breakaway regions.

SGS, the world’s largest inspection, verification, testing and certification company headquartered in Geneva, has been selected to take upon the mission.

Abashidze said works are underway on the text of contracts, which the company has to sign separately with Georgia and Russia.

“The works which were underway since 2011 have already been finished and now we have to agree with the Russian side when to start actual implementation of this agreement," Abashidze said.

"In order to clarify these issues I will meet in Prague with Karasin," Abashidze added. "Our Swiss partners and our European Union partners are also informed. I will also have consultations in Brussels in the coming days about the Georgian-Russian relations, which will be then followed by talks in Prague.”

A planned meeting of Abashidze and Karasin will be their first since the latest one they held four months ago. This kind of meetings, informally known as Abashidze-Karasin format, was launched in December, 2012 and focuses mostly on trade and economic relations.