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Russia-Georgia talks suspended until November

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-16 11:53

On Wednesday, EU foreign ministers deferred a decision at a meeting in Brussels on whether to restart talks with Russia on a wide-ranging partnership accord that were suspended due to the Georgian incursion.

Georgians leave the town of Gori after accusing South Ossetians of "ethnic cleansing" in August 2008. The UN's highest court ordered Russia and Georgia to refrain from racial discrimination against individuals or groups in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and adjacent areas. [Agencies]

Some EU states have linked resuming the talks to progress in Geneva and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said he expected the issue to be taken up again next month.

Fried blamed the impasse on the representatives of the breakaway regions, who he said wanted the same status as the national delegations. "Sadly we never got beyond procedural and organisational issues because the South Ossetians and Abkhazians walked out," he said.

Georgian officials said they had tried to work with the EU to find an acceptable compromise allowing officials from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whom they termed "Russian proxies", to take part in the talks, for instance at an informal level.

But they also wanted community representatives from those regions who remain loyal to Tbilisi to be present.

"We're here to talk with the Russians and if the Russians choose to talk with us or not to talk with us we will be religiously coming to Geneva for the deliberations," Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze told a briefing.

The UN's top court, the International Court of Justice, on Wednesday ordered Russia and Georgia to ensure the security of ethnic groups in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and adjacent areas of Georgia, and refrain from sponsoring racial discrimination.

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