TBILISI, February 19 (AVN) - The next leg of the Russian-Georgian military talks scheduled for March will not help find a final solution to the problem of Russian military bases in Georgia, President Eduard Shevardnadze said on Monday.
Many more legs of talks will be needed to solve the problem, Shevardnadze told a news conference. According to him, Russian and Georgian military and political experts are negotiating on terms of the 12th and 62nd Russian bases withdrawal from the cities of Batumi and Akhalkalaki, but the parties have not reached a consensus so far.
Russia has withdrawn 59 tanks, 403 armoured vehicles and 29 artillery systems from Georgia in accordance with an agreement reached at the OSCE summit in Istanbul in November 1999. It still has 79 tanks, 103 armoured vehicles and 137 artillery systems in the Georgian territory.
According to Shevardnadze, Russian-Georgian relations have started to improve lately. "It does not mean, however, that Georgia makes any substantial changes in its foreign policy," the president stressed.
"A situation that will raise the issue of Georgia's neutrality may appear in Europe and in the world someday," Shevardnadze went on. However this development is hypothetical and Georgia will so far preserve the current dynamics and pace of co-operation and partnership development with NATO, he added.