Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (left) guides South Ossetian Foreign Minister Murat Dzhoiev (center) and Abkhazian Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba into the company of recognized states.
Photo: ITAR-TASS
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Freshly Recognized
// Russia established diplomatic relations with South Ossetia and Abkhazia
Russia established diplomatic relations with Tskhinvali and Sukhumi yesterday. In the near future, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will sign intergovernmental agreements on friendship and cooperation with the leaders of the two freshly recognized republics. Among other things, the agreements propose the placement of Russian military bases on the territories of the republics. Moscow is hoping that other countries will begin to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia. At the Russian Foreign Ministry, Kommersant was told that there is particular hope for Belarus, Syria, Libya, Jordan and Morocco.
Moscow wasted no time establishing diplomatic relations with Sukhumi and Tskhinvali. The exchange of notes took place yesterday at the Foreign Ministry reception building on Spiridonovka Street in Moscow, at a meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia – Sergey Lavrov, Sergey Shamba and Murat Dzhioev, respectively. Lavrov later explained that Russia was establishing relations with the two republics on the level of embassies. “If you are concerned about whether Russia plans to send ambassadors to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the answer is yes. Candidates have been chosen and submitted to the leadership for approval,” Lavrov said.
Besides exchanging notes, the foreign ministers endorsed intergovernmental agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual aid that are to be signed by the presidents of Russia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. According to Lavrov, the documents “define the direction of cooperation between the countries.” He pointed out that security issues were treated separately in them. “The Russian Federation, South Ossetia and Abkhazia will take all possible measures jointly to eliminate threats to peace and to counter acts of aggression against them from any state or group of states and will provide each other with necessary aid, including military aid. That will be done by the procedure for exerting the right to collective and individual self-defense in accordance with article 51 of the UN Charter. That means that Russia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia can place military bases on each other’s territories,” Lavrov said.
Abkhazian Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba told Kommersant that then heads of state plan to sign the agreements in the nearest future. After that, they may be supplemented by individual bilateral agreements. “There is a point in the conciliated document on military cooperation with Russia, but still it is a general political agreement. We have plans to conclude a separate agreement on military cooperation,” Shamba told the newspaper.
There is already rather close military cooperation between the two Caucasian republics and Russia. Yesterday, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov reported to the Russian president that an agreement had been reached with the South Ossetian and Abkhazian authorities that the Russian military contingent will consist of 3800 people in each republic. “The structure of the forces and their placed of stationing have been determined. In South Ossetia, that will be the cities of Dzhava and Tskhinvali, and in Abkhazia so far that is the places where peacekeepers were,” the minister reported. The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that the units being sent to Abkhazia and South Ossetia were not peacekeepers, but military contingents to guarantee the safety of the two republics at their request. Thus Moscow has made it unambiguously clear that it will take both republics under its wing militarily. After Medvedev called for the configuration of the Russian armed forces’ presence in the republics to be determined as quickly as possible yesterday, the appearance of Russian military bases there can be considered certain.
Russian diplomacy has one more important task, that is, achieving the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by as many countries as possible. Implementation of that plan has not been notably successful. Especially compared to Kosovo. The day after that territory declared independence on February 17, seven states recognized it. Now, a list of 39 countries that recognize the republic is posted on the president’s website. Neither Nicaragua nor Russia is on the list. They are the only countries to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Moscow is waiting impatiently for Belarus to join that company. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has already announced that the newly elected parliament will take up that issue after September 28. “We also expect a decision on that account from the authorities of Syria, Jordan, Libya and Morocco,” a source in the Russian Foreign Minister told Kommersant, and added, “But we did not pressure any of our partners for it. We simply inform them of our position.”
Vladimir Solovyev
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 10, 2008
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