Russia Says EU to Vouch That Georgia Won’t Use Force

Sebastian Alison
Bloomberg
Tuesday, Sept 9, 2008

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the European Union assumed the role of “chief guarantor” that Georgia won’t use force against two separatist regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The accord was reached yesterday in talks between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency. Sarkozy delivered a letter to Medvedev in which Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili agreed not to use force against the regions, whose independence Russia recognized on Aug. 26.

“We also asked our colleagues, and they consented, that Mr. Barroso and Mr. Solana affix these obligations on paper on behalf of the European Union,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow today. European Commission President Jose Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana attended the talks with Medvedev.

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Russia agreed yesterday to remove its forces within a week from five “observer posts” in Georgia located on a line from the Black Sea port of Poti northeast to Senaki. It will withdraw all forces from buffer zones that extend from Abkhazia and South Ossetia into Georgia within 10 days after an international force, including at least 200 EU observers, is deployed in the area, a move expected by Oct. 1, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its Web site.

The agreement reached by Medvedev and Sarkozy also calls for Georgian troops to return to their bases by Oct. 1.

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