Sarkozy Visit 'Constructive' but Geneva Talks Deadlocked

Nikoloz Vashakidze, the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, emphasized the importance of the French President Nicholas Sarkozy's visit to Georgia. At the regular Monday briefing Vashakidze spoke of the “positive messages” sent by Sarkozy towards Georgia. “Clear political messages were made by Sarkozy fully supporting Georgia’s democratic and European choice as well as its territorial sovereignty,” the deputy minister stated.

According to Vashakidze, Sarkozy’s speech, made on Freedom Square last Friday, also encouraged Russia to act in a more constructive way, follow its obligations taken by the ceasefire agreement in 2008, and ensure peace and other necessary conditions in Georgia and the entire region for further democratic development.

Vashakidze also referred to last week’s results of the internationally mediated peace negotiations in Geneva. As the Deputy Minister stated, the recent round of Swiss-mediated talks with Russia over its WTO entry terms ended with no results due to Russia’s unconstructive approach towards the issue. “Russia refuses to agree even on the most elementary minimum of requirements in respect of Georgia which means keeping in line with WTO rules,” Vashakidze stated.

Coincidentally, it was Sarkozy’s initiative to start the Geneva talks between Georgia and Russia after the August war in 2008. The co-chairman of the Talks and the former Ambassador of France to Georgia Philippe Lefort has been optimistic about the issue while most Georgian analysts are quite the opposite. But commenting on the prospects of Georgian-Russian negotiations Kakha Gogolashvili, an expert on international issues, supposes that the “resumption of a dialogue between the Georgian and Russian governments is a matter of time.”

“There have been lots of examples of categorical refusals on negotiations in modern history but time changes the situation,” the analyst said confident that Russia would realize the necessity of talking to Georgia after Vladimir Putin’s return to leadership. “Although the presidential reshuffle in Russia is just a pseudo-process, I think the current President Dmitri Medvedev’s resignation and a “new Putin” will be followed by some positive changes,” Gogolashvili stated.