GENEVA, December 10. /TASS/. Georgia’s neighbors are worried by a growth of its military cooperation with NATO, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told TASS on Wednesday.
“There’s been much evidence of Georgia’s building up partnership and collaboration with the North-Atlantic pact over recent years and the fact causes increasing concern in Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” he said.
“A package of reinforced cooperation with Georgia was adopted at NATO’s summit in September,” Karasin recalled. “It includes, among other things, a buildup of assistance in defence technologies and a training center in Georgia where the bloc’s instructors will boost the country’s defence capability.”
“Also, there’s information on supplies to combat weaponry systems to Tbilisi,” he said. “That’s why the concern of Georgia’s neighbors over security is quite understandable.”
Karasin said Russia had reaffirmed its readiness to act as a guarantor of agreements on security in the region.
“During the debate on the main objective of Geneva discussions, which is to ensure durable security of Abkhazia ad South Ossetia, representatives of the two republics spoke for speeding up work on an agreement with Georgia on the non-use of force that would be binding,” he said.
“It was stressed that on the face of Georgia’s unabated drive to joining NATO, the reinforced package of cooperation extended to it at the summit in Wales, the plans to emplace NATO infrastructures on the Georgian territory, and resumption of talks on the supplies of new Western weaponry, the issues of security become particularly acute,” Karasin said.
“The consultations are due to continue in March 2015,” he said.
Karasin heads the Russian delegation at the Geneva discussions on security and stability in South Caucasus. Another round of consultations involving representatives of Abkhazia, Georgia, Russia, the U.S., and the Republic of South Ossetia was held on Wednesday.
These consultations are held under the auspices of the UN, EU, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.