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Russian, Georgian foreign ministers to meet on conflict
AFP
TBILISI
Petroleumworld.com 10 25 06
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili will meet in Moscow early next month amid an ongoing diplomatic crisis between the two states.
"A bilateral meeting will take place in Moscow between Bezhuashvili and Lavrov, during which a range of questions around the Russian-Georgian crisis will be discussed," a spokesman for the Georgian foreign ministry told AFP Tuesday.
The talks will be held when Bezhuashvili comes to Moscow for the November 1-2 meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC).
The meeting will be the first high-level public contacts between the two states since a poisonous diplomatic row broke late last month over Tbilisi's brief arrest of four Russian officers on spying charges.
In response, Moscow cut transport ties, postal deliveries and money transfers to Georgia through the Russian postal system, compounding earlier Russian bans on imports of Georgian wine and mineral water, the country's two main exports.
Moscow has also deported hundreds of Georgian citizens, cracked down on Georgian-owned businesses, and won approval of a UN Security Council resolution ordering Georgia to pull its troops out of the Moscow-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia.
The conflict has escalated as Georgia has announced it is blocking talks on Russian accession to the World Trade Organization and Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Tbilisi of planning military assaults in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a second Moscow-backed breakaway region.
The Georgian foreign ministry spokesman said Bezhuashvili and Lavrov agreed during a telephone conversation Tuesday to hold talks on the sidelines of the November BSEC summit of foreign ministers.
The BSEC was formed in 1992 to coordinate economic interests and facilitate trade issues among 12 Black Sea-region states, particularly concerning the region's rich energy resources.
AFP 24 1726 GMT 10 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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