TBILISI, July 7 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia will ratify the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty only after Russia closes all its military bases in the country, a deputy defense minister said Friday.
Under an agreement signed by Russia and Georgia on March 31, Russian troops and military hardware are to leave Georgia's territory by 2008. The pullout from the base at Akhalkalaki, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with NATO member Turkey, is to be completed by December 2006.
Mamuka Kudava said in a RIA Novosti interview, "Georgia's position on the ratification of the CFE is fully in line with NATO's position: Georgia will agree to ratify the adapted treaty only after Russia implements in full its commitments to Georgia."
The deputy defense minister said that besides Soviet-era bases in Akhalkalaki and Batumi, the capital of the republic of Adjaria, Russia should complete the shutdown of its base in Gudauta, in the breakaway province of Abkhazia. "The base has not been closed completely yet," he said.
The CFE treaty establishes limits on military hardware and troop numbers for all countries from the Atlantic to the Urals, and aims to establish a military balance on the European continent. The Istanbul Commitments, signed along with the Adapted CFE treaty in Istanbul in 1999, concern Russia's military presence on its southern flank.
The withdrawal of Russian hardware is being monitored by a joint Georgian-Russian commission set up under the March agreement.
Kudava also said many weapons remained in South Ossetia and Abkhazia illegally, citing international observers' data.
Russia's foreign minister said Thursday that CFE could cease to exist if the West continued to evade ratification of its adapted version.
"In the absence of any shifts in the standpoint of primarily NATO countries who are opposed to the Adapted CFE, the treaty may die of natural causes," Sergei Lavrov said at a panel discussion in Russia's parliament.
