by Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Georgian special governmental envoy for settlement of relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze made their first post-war bilateral meeting in Switzerland.
The Russian and Georgian diplomats met before, but only during multilateral negotiations on security in South Caucasus under mediation of the EU, OSCE and UN or via Swiss diplomatic missions. The meeting of Karasin and Abashidze in Geneva is the first official bilateral contact of Moscow and Tbilisi after the war in 2008. Zurab Abashidze is considered one of the most skilled Georgian diplomats and has a mandate of the government and Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. State Secretary Grigory Karasin supervises the post-Soviet field of the Russian Foreign Ministry and heads the Russian delegation at multilateral security talks.
The negotiators have been familiar with each other since Zurab Abashidze had started working as the Ambassador to Moscow. Georgian experts have no illusions about the use of personal relations when it comes to inter-state interaction and national interests. “They have very warm feelings towards each other, but they are unlikely to play a decisive role, problems of inter-state relations are way too complicated”, political analyst Tornike Sharashenidze told Vestnik Kavkaza.
The meeting of Abashidze and Karasin was followed by special nuances. Firstly, the Georgian special envoy approved the position of his Russian counterpart that the problems of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will not be discussed at their talks.
“We plan to discuss issues of Abkhazia and South Ossetia without Abkhazians and Ossetians”, the Russian state secretary said. “We will only discuss issues that were not raised during multilateral meetings”, the Georgian diplomat confirmed.
For the first time in 20 years, Georgia has confirmed the essential principle Moscow had been proposing unsuccessfully: development of bilateral relations without associating them with Georgian territorial unity. In other words, Russia cooperates with Abkhazia and South Ossetia as though there is no Georgia, while Georgia cooperates with Russia as though the two breakway republics do not exist. Thus, settlement of conflicts with the former autonomies was put out of the Russian-Georgian agenda.
Secondly, Georgia agreed to have Grigory Karasin, head of the Russian delegation at multilateral Geneva consultations for security, to be the Russian negotiator. Karasin said after a four-hour meeting with Abashidze: “Georgia and us do not need mediators”. Moscow feels more comfortable cooperating with Georgia without US officials, who had attended the multilateral talks in Geneva. The Geneva format formed within the context of the Sarkozy-Medvedev agreement is being replaced with a more convenient bilateral format for Moscow, when Tbilisi cannot appeal to mediators.
What does Georgia get in return? A lot, taking into account the return of Georgian products (wines, Borzhomi mineral water, fruits and vegetables) to the Russian market and simplification of the visa regime. The concessions are more significant for the Georgian government than declaration of western parliaments about occupation.
Abashidze said after the talks, that he was generally satisfied: “The meeting was not bad for the first contact. We stated, that relations were at a stalemate and needed to be guided. For a start, we set solvable issues of trade, humanitarian and cultural field”.
Besides obvious concessions of Georgia, Tbilisi hopes to exploit the great diplomatic skill of Zurab Abashidze who worked as the Ambassador to Russia in 1998-2004. Petre Mamradze, former head of the Georgian chancellery told Vestnik Kavkaza: “I know Zurab irakliyevich for 20 years. All Russian diplomats and state officials treat him with great respect. It is a very clever and moderate man, a true professional. He believes deeply that Georgian statehood cannot succeed without settlement of relations with Russia”. The main result of the meeting in Geneva is that Georgian manufacturers of wine and Borzhomi have never been so close to restoring exports to Russia since the embargo of 2006. Moscow will most likely encourage the first signs of the pragmatic and realistic approach of the Georgian side.
