TBILISI. Oct 2 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia and Georgian experts will hold the next meeting on military issues in Moscow this month, Russian Ambassador to Georgia Vladimir Chkhikvishvili said on Thursday.
"The date of the meeting is not set yet, it will be held in the run-up to the next leg of negotiations of delegation heads," Chkhikvishvili told Interfax-Military News Agency.
At the previous expert meeting held in Tbilisiin September, the parties "reached some results" in the sphere of Russian military bases withdrawal, which is an extremely 'touchy' issue, the ambassador said.
"The Russian party is ready for compromises and expects Georgia to have the same position," he stressed.
Russia has met its obligation concerning the removal of the Vaziani and Gudauta bases which it assumed at the OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999. The parties now discuss the deadline for withdrawing the military bases from Akhalkalaki and Batumi. Russia says at least 11 years are needed to remove them, while Georgia insists that three years will be enough.
The Georgian delegation to the talks on military bases is led by Foreign Minister Irakly Menagarishvili, and the Russian delegation by Minister of Industry, Science and Technologies Ilya Klebanov.