2016-07-01
According to Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, negotiations with the Armenian side on transporting status neutral cargo through the territory of so-called South Ossetia have been cancelled because of the inadequate response from the Russian Federation related to the status of the unrecognized territory. The Georgian side refused to use this route.
The offer of the Georgian Government, says the Prime Minister, involved opening this passage, necessitated by the recent force majeure, only under Georgian legislation.
"I simply do not understand all this hysteria following the Armenian Transport Minister's statement. We have negotiations with Armenia. As you know, the main roads were devastated by a massive landslide in Devdoraki, and it will take at least two weeks to restore them. Until then, Georgia exporters are most likely to face enormous problems transporting fruits to the Russian market, and so are representatives of Armenia, businesspersons. We believe that in order fully to utilize Georgia's transit functions, we must be reliable partners, which is exactly why I had a conversation with the Armenian Prime Minister. The Armenian side offered to hold talks with the Russian Federation to make this temporary decision least painful, as much as it is possible, and to ensure against involving the issue of status in the process.
As you know, for cases involving force majeure events, the Law on Occupied Territories prescribes neutral status transportation of cargo through the territory of so-called South Ossetia, which is exactly how we wanted to provide a transportation route, to protect from suffering catastrophic losses our businesspersons and those intending to transport their goods through Georgian territories.
Unfortunately, our Armenian colleagues informed us that the Russian Federation had given a somewhat inadequate answer directly related to the status of the territory recognized by Moscow. Consequently, we refused to use this route because our offer involved the exclusive use of Georgian legislation for the force majeure opening of this passage. We have opted for a ferry route. Currently, cargos are shipped to Russia via the Black Sea. I reiterate that we have the Law on Occupied Territories adopted, by the way, before 2012, which prescribes using this route in case of emergency.
Unfortunately, however, this did not work, though it would ease tremendously the transportation of cargos until the completion of restoration work.
Equally interesting must be the issue of the agreement with SGS, which we directed to the Russian side. Unfortunately, we have yet to receive a reply because we do not have at this point a mechanism for transporting status neutral cargos. Since we have not legally adopted a mechanism for transporting goods, we opted against using this route to transport goods. So, at this point, cargos are transported from Georgia to both Russia and Armenia through the Black Sea, using train ferries," Giorgi Kvirikashvili stated.
Prime Minister's Press Office