14 June 2008, 13:16
Georgia refuses to negotiate Russia's accession to WTO
The talks in Geneva on the new version of the report of the working group on Russia's accession to the WTO, planned for June 16, will pass without participation of Georgia.
"The position of the Georgian party remains unchanged. We demand that Russia cancels ex-president Vladimir Putin's instruction of April 16, which deals with the issue of setting up direct economic relations with non-recognized republics - Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Tamara Kovziridze, Deputy Minister for Economic Development of Georgia, has told journalists today. As she said, only after such cancellation it will be possible to renew bilateral negotiations on Russia's accession to the WTO, the "Interfax" reports.
At the same time, the Russian party is also not going to discuss its accession to the WTO with Georgia. Maxim Medvedkov, the main Russian negotiator, director of the department for trade negotiations of the Ministry for Economic Development of the Russian Federation, has noted that so far no negotiations with the Georgian party on the operation of customs checkpoints on the borders with Abkhazia and South Ossetia are planned, the RIA "Novosti" informs.
