TBILISI. March 1 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgia may grant the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone the right to use facilities of the former Russian military base in Gudauta in the breakaway region of Abkhazia.
"Moscow and Tbilisi may make progress regarding the former 50th Russian military base in Gudauta. If an accord on inspecting the base three times a year is reached, Georgia is ready to negotiate on the use of several facilities of the Gudauta base by the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces," a high-ranking official of the Georgian Foreign Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
Russia announced in late 2001 that it had disbanded the Gudauta base in compliance with decisions of the OSCE summing in Istanbul (November 1999). However Georgia insists on international checks of Russia's compliance with the obligation several times a year until Tbilisi restores its jurisdiction over Abkhazia.
"The parties may find a mutually acceptable formula soon, and then Georgia will agree to grant some facilities to Russian peacekeepers, who have been in Abkhazia since 1994 under the CIS auspices, in response to the base's transparency," the official said.