TBILISI. July 11 (Interfax-AVN) - The Georgian authorities have called on Moscow to resume talks on the withdrawal of Russian bases from Georgia.
"The Georgian Foreign Ministry has sent a note to the Russian foreign policy agency calling to resume talks on the withdrawal of military bases from the republic's territory," Deputy Foreign Minister Kakha Sikharulidze told a briefing on Friday.
"The accords reached at the OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999 have been implemented only as far as the Vaziani base is concerned, but no further progress has been made," Sikharulidze said.
"Withdrawal of the Batumi and Akhalkalaki military bases is still unsettled and there is no certainty concerning the Gudauta base," he noted.
According to the Georgian Foreign Ministry, talks on the future of the Russian bases have not been conducted for several months.
"At the same time, presence of Russian military bases on the Georgian territory is a general European problem in the context of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty," Sikharulidze said.
"The Russian party's argument that the bases withdrawal is a subject of bilateral talks and that it should not be considered in the OSCE framework is groundless," he stressed.
In compliance with decisions of the Istanbul summit, Russia abolished its 137th military base in the Tbilisi suburb of Vaziani in summer 2000. Moreover, Russia announced the closure of the 50th base in Gudauta in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, but Georgian demands international monitoring of the base.
As to the 162nd military base in Akhalkalaki and the 12th military base in Batumi, Georgia demands their abolition within three years, but Russia says the process will take at least 11 years.
According to the Georgian Foreign Ministry, about 3,000 Russian servicemen and about 400 pieces of heavy Russian hardware are located on the country's territory.