The European Union's foreign policy chief called on Russia on Thursday to honor its agreement to close its military bases in Georgia
Published:
18 January 2004 y., Sunday
Russia agreed at a European summit in Istanbul in 1999 to close its four bases in Georgia. Troops have withdrawn from two of the bases and a deadline for withdrawal from the remaining two has not been worked out.
The issue, a consistent irritant between the two countries, has taken on new prominence since the election Jan. 4 of Mikheil Saakashvili as president, to replace Eduard Shevardnadze, who resigned in November after street protests.
"The position of the European Union is that the agreement that was signed in 1999 in Istanbul be carried out," the EU's Javier Solana said after meetings with Saakashvili and other senior officials.
Aslan Abashidze, the leader of Georgia's autonomous Adzharia region and a fierce opponent of Saakashvili, met with high-level officials in Moscow on Thursday to discuss the strengthening of economic ties with Russia, Itar-Tass reported. Adzharia includes the larger of the two Russian bases in Georgia.
Šaltinis:
AP
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
The whale shark is the largest living fish species and is usually found in tropical and warm oceans. This gentle giant is not dangerous to humans but demand for its internal organs is putting it in grave danger.
more »
Land shortages in China and environmental concerns have inspired innovative alternatives at the Asia Funeral Expo in Hong Kong.
more »
Britain's Queen Elizabeth delivers landmark speech of reconciliation during visit to Ireland but stops short of apology.
more »
French climber Alain Robert, known as "Spiderman" scales Turkey's tallest building.
more »
The growth of a tree takes place so slowly that, in real time, it's impossible to observe. Six years ago plant-lover and British film-maker Neil Bromhall decided to speed up the process with time-lapse photography...
more »
Chinese artist Wang Jiang makes portraits of famous faces including U.S. President Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden from nothing but paper torn by hand.
more »
Residents of the southern Spanish town of Lorca stay in makeshift camps and shelters after an earthquake hits the town, destroying buildings and killing at least eight.
more »
The latest technological development in robots is the main focus of the Shanghai International Conference on Robotics and Automation in China.
more »
A rare earthquake rocked Lorca, an ancient town in southeastern Spain, on Wednesday causing houses to collapse, damaging historic churches and public buildings and killing at least 10 people.
more »
A small factory in New York's Brooklyn is doing its best to keep the dying art of making vinyl records.
more »