Mikheil Saakashvili talked about the issues related to the membership of Russia in WTO in Kvareli today. The President of Georgia defined the meaning of the offer, jointly crafted by Georgia and Switzerland, in detail and called the attained agreement a victory of Georgian diplomacy. According to him, having international monitors observe the Georgian border means not only development of the economy but increased security as well.
“Today Russia accepted the offer which is related to its membership in WTO. We have been negotiating with the Russian side for several years directly and with the help of mediators since 2008. It has to be noted that we had no information about and no mechanism of controlling the cargo that has been crossing the border since 1992. This means that we have no idea what kind of cargo is shipped around the territory of Georgia. Up until 2008, Russia tried to avoid controlling this border with us while giving various reasons. Russia committed an international illegal act and recognized our territories as independent; the position that the rest of the world did not share. That is why the negotiations reached a dead end. In recent months, with the help of mediators (the EU as well as the United States participated in this process; Switzerland played the most significant role) we conducted negotiations, but the Russian side continued to refuse international monitoring of the borders. Moreover, the first position of Russia was that no monitoring was going to happen at all. After several months, they offered to allow monitoring of those parts of Georgia that they consider Georgian territories. Of course we refused the first two offers immediately. They offered us a double standard of monitoring – placing the monitors in Abkhazia and in parts of Tskhinvali, however these monitors would control the cargo that enters Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali Region, while giving this information to international trade organizations, but not to the Georgian side. In the end, they offered 10 different scenarios which the Georgian side refused.
As a result of intensive negotiations with the Swiss side 10 days ago we crafted a joint offer according to which Switzerland, as the third party acting on behalf of the international community, will hire internationally certified monitors who will be accountable to the Swiss Confederation based on an international agreement. The coordinates are also defined precisely: Psou and Upper Zaramag and the Roki Tunnel. The cargo shipped around Georgia will be internationally monitored within these coordinates. This is the first time since 1992 that we will be receiving information through international observers about all the cargo entering the sovereign territory of Georgia. These observers are accountable to a third party, which in turn is obligated to share all of this information with us.
I believe that this is a victory for the Georgian side as a result of our intensive negotiations. Of course we will achieve the final and all-inclusive victory when we get a chance to place the officers of Georgian customs alongside the international observers. We will all achieve this together. However, what we have achieved today is an important thing –This means monitoring the Georgian borders by the side that recognizes the territorial integrity of our country.
This is what we have achieved in the World Trade Organization. This is very important because during the entire process of negotiations our most important principle was (of course we could not decide the territorial issues) that the occupant side must allow international monitoring and control of the borders. This was very important for our legal, diplomatic, and security situation. We will know what kind of cargo is shipped around our country, which is extremely crucial not only in terms of the economy but for any sense of security. This is the first time we received an international approval and an international mechanism for this. It was very complex; we employed all manner of diplomatic mechanisms so that Georgia would not have to compromise too much. Our position was very clear: either Russia would satisfy our demands or it would not become a member of the WTO. I think that our partners understood in the end that no matter who had objections, Georgia would not step back an inch from its principled position. This is the result of the negotiations and I wanted to explain the matters at hand to our society” – stated the President of Georgia.