TBILISI. Feb 10 (Interfax-AVN) - The Georgian-Russian agreement on exchanging liaison officers in the Chechen, Ingush, and Dagestan border areas is expected to be signed in early April.
"We planned to have signed this agreement in the course of the ongoing visit of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to Moscow, but did not manage to cover all issues, pertaining to procedure, thus we agreed on signing this document at the meeting of CIS border guard commanders to be held in Kyiv in early April," Lieutenant General Valery Chkheidze, chairman of the Georgian State Border Guard Department, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
According to him, "an exchange of liaison officers, who have sufficient authority, is a must to establish a faster decision- making process, pertaining to guarding borders, especially in spring, when snow will melt in the mountains, and guerillas may decided to cross the border."
"Under the preliminary accord, Russian officers are to visit Georgian checkpoints in Lagodekhi, Barisakho, and Kazbegi, while Georgian officers are to be deployed at checkpoints of the Khunzakh, Itum-Kale, and Nazran border guard units, attached to the North Caucasus Regional Border Guard Directorate," Chkheidze said.