Is an Agreement Between Russia and Georgia Possible?

• 07.13.2017, 17:51
•  Region,  World

Agenda.ge

At a joint news conference following the talks with South Ossetian Foreign Minister Dmitry Medoyev, in Moscow on July 10, 2017, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came up with a statement for reporters, where he also referred to the transit trade, speaking about the readiness of the South Ossetian delegates to take part in the project. On the occasion he particularly noted:

"We exchanged opinions on the organisation of transit trade in the region. These plans have provoked considerable interest. The South Ossetian delegates confirmed their readiness to take part in this project. We highly appreciate this constructive stand of South Ossetia, without which the transit trade project cannot be implemented for obvious reasons." 

In this context it should also be noted that on July, 7, 2017, the Georgian Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze and the State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, Grigory Karasin met in Prague. As it is noted, during the meeting Abashidze and Karasin touched upon Russian-Georgian commercial and transportation relations. Agenda.ge reports that during the meeting the sides exchanged views on the implementation of the 2011 agreement on the mechanism of customs administration and monitoring of regional trade.

To note, in 2011 an agreement on trade corridors between Russia and Georgia through Abkhazia and South Ossetia was signed. The agreement was signed during the ongoing negotiations by Russia to become a member of the World Trade Organization. The agreement came, after, at that time the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, lifted the veto for Russia to become a WTO member, with a precondition that the trade corridors between Russia and Georgia pass through Abkhazia and South Ossetia being controlled by international mediators. The parties aim at signing an agreement with Swiss SGS Company, which will control the transfer of the goods.

However, the implementation of the agreement has been continuously postponed, as the parties could not come to terms on the issue of participation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the agreement. On the occasion both South Ossetia and Abkhazia refused to allow transfer of the goods through their territory, unless they are not the sides of the agreement.

After their last meeting responding to the question of Kommersant, whether Russia had given up the idea South Ossetia’s and Abkhazia’s participation in the possible agreement, Abashidze noted: "With my colleague we have re-confirmed that the 2011 agreement was signed between the two sides, Georgia and Russia, and the third side can only be Switzerland."

Thus we can see that the parties still have to overcome some political obstacles to reach a final agreement. However, the intensity of the ongoing process itself provides ground for positive expectations. Once the agreement reached, all the sides will benefit from it, especially Georgia, that gain more active role as a regional transit country. Armenia, of course, will also benefit from the agreement, thus acquiring second and third alternative routes to the outside world.