"Today's negotiations came to no results. We have to reappraise the matter and come together again," Igor Savolsky, Ambassador-at-Large of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told journalists.
What came as a stumbling block was the interpretation and implementation of previous principled political agreements to establish joint anti-terror centers, added the diplomat.
"Georgia has deviated from those agreements, as we see it. We tried to meet each other halfway, and come at all sorts of compromise wordings. At last, we came to offered options which put to doubt the sheer chance to set up such centers," said Mr. Savolsky.
Merab Antadze, Deputy Foreign Minister and Georgian delegation head, in his turn, came down on Russia for tying in Russian base withdrawal with prospects for anti-terror centers.
"We were willing to make compromises, and tried to do so. Despite all that, we came to a conclusion that Russia was not interested in fruitful negotiations. We were offering a practical plan to withdraw Russian military bases from Georgia and pass to the host country a number of Russian military projects. We also proposed to establish administration working groups for setting up anti-terror centers," said Mr. Antadze.
As he regards the issue, "the Russian delegation attempted to tie in the bases problem with center establishment. It was that stance, in the final analysis, that made the talks futile."
The deputy minister hopes Sergei Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister, will come to Tbilisi, despite all, on a visit scheduled for February 18.
"I hope Mr. Lavrov will appear on his visit. If he does, we intend again to raise all questions on which we failed to come to an agreement during the latest conferences," he remarked.
The foreign-ministerial agenda of these two days also included prospects for a reciprocal abolition of visas. Work went on at a draft framework treaty. The negotiators' debates also concerned the pullout of two Russian military bases from Batumi on the Black Sea coast and Akhalkalaki near Tbilisi in compliance with OSCE agreements made in Istanbul in 1999. Last but not least came prospects for joint anti-terror centers.
The sides failed to come to an accord on any of the issues.
