Georgian government officials on November 3 declined to confirm a report that Russian leaders had agreed to a compromise that would enable Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization. Talks in Geneva about a proposed Georgian-Russian deal are ongoing, Georgia’s chief negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergi Kapanadze, told EurasiaNet.org.
Georgia is the last remaining WTO member to object to Russia’s membership. Discussions on the topic had stumbled over how to monitor trade that crosses from Russia into the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia – territories which Russia now recognizes as independent countries, but which are internationally recognized as belonging to Georgia. The question became more acute after the 2008 war between the two countries.
Under international pressure, Georgia in late October agreed to a Swiss proposal that would provide for the stationing of international monitors at the disputed borders and the monitoring of cargo transit under an electronic format. Late on the evening of November 2, the Russian state-run ITAR-TASS news agency reported that Russia also had accepted the proposed arrangement. Under the Swiss plan, private contractors would handle monitoring responsibilities, and would be stationed on Georgian and Russian territory along the borders with the separatist entities. A third party, presumably Switzerland, would oversee monitoring operations. The monitors would report their findings to the third party, which would then relay the findings to both Tbilisi and Moscow.
The ITAR-TASS report did not immediately settle the matter. Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Kapanadze, the chief of Georgia’s delegation to the WTO talks, said that he first heard of Moscow’s consent from ITAR-TASS, rather than via a diplomatic source. His delegation flew to Geneva at dawn on November 3 to meet with Russian negotiators. “I cannot confirm anything until the talks are over,” Kapanadze said.
Kapanadze, however, is not alone in his assertion. Earlier in the day, Russian media reported Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze, Georgia’s state minister for European affairs, as saying that Russia had taken another time-out on the WTO talks. The head of Russia’s delegation to the WTO talks, Deputy Economic Development Minister Maksim Medvedkov, was later reported to have denied this information.
Meanwhile, during a segment on national broadcaster Rustavi2’s 6pm TV news program, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, dressed in a hot-pink shirt and jeans, used a pointer to indicate on a map of Georgia the proposed location of international monitors. He called the deal with Russia “our diplomatic victory” – a reference to the placement of international monitors on the Russian borders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Since its 2008 war with Russia, Tbilisi has pushed, unsuccessfully, for some such an international presence in both of the breakaway regions.
Saakashvili made his remarks concerning monitors during a televised presentation on Georgian wine. Georgia expects to see its wine, mineral water and agricultural products return to the Russian market once Russia joins the World Trade Organization; an event – agreement pending – expected to take place in December. Russia accounted for roughly 56 percent and 45 percent of Georgian wine and mineral water exports, respectively, before the 2006 embargo. The dispute would now need to be resolved within the framework of WTO regulations.
“Politicians can no longer block the trade between these two countries,” commented economic analyst Demur Giorkhelidze.
Davit Narmania, the board chair of the Center for the Research of Economic Problems, described the ability to use the WTO for trade-dispute resolution as “the key benefit” for Georgia in facilitating Russia’s accession.
But political economist Soso Tsiskarishvili cautioned that a WTO deal with Russia could complicate Tbilisi’s relations with the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The agreement “should be very carefully interpreted by both sides” given the two breakaway regions’ claims to independence and sensitivity that “they are not included in the WTO-related process [that concerns their borders],” Tsiskarishvili said. “This agreement should be a tool for establishing closer relationships between the breakaway republics and the Tbilisi government; not vice versa.”
Even if Georgia and Russia are in agreement, there could be further hurdles ahead. On November 3, the Russian news agency Interfax reported de facto South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity as opposing international monitors on the territory’s borders with Russia. “We’ve expressed this position more than once, and we don’t intend to change it,” he said.
On November 1, de facto Abkhaz Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Chirikba asserted that Abkhazia would make its position on the monitors known “as soon as Russia’s position will be clear,” but added that any Georgian “control” on its border with Russia would be “a violation of our sovereignty,” the de facto state press agency Apnsypress reported.
As such objections indicate, the WTO talks were part of what economic analyst Giorkhelidze describes as a complex political game. Georgia, he argues, got as much as possible out of the process, and could not and should not resist international opinion, which backs Russia’s accession to the WTO. “There is no winner and no loser in these WTO talks. It led to a compromise that was in the interest of the entire world interested in the Russian market, and Georgia had to take it into consideration,” he said. “The WTO can be a positive step toward the further normalization of Georgian-Russian relations.”
Nino Patsuria is a freelance reporter based in Tbilisi.
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