Russia welcomes Georgian president's pledge on foreign bases

Russia welcomed on Thursday a pledge by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili that his country would never allow foreign military bases on its territory after the withdrawal of Russian troops.

"It is also consonant with the Russian position, which does notfavor deploying military bases and troop units of foreign states within Georgia," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement.

"It is important that these words be matched by actions. It is necessary to fix a provision to this effect in a legally binding document," Yakovenko said.

Saakashvili told a news conference Wednesday Georgia will never become a passageway or strategic base of any other country after the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Georgia is always ready to develop friendly ties with Russia and does not want to be taken as a security threat to any of its neighbors, the president said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia would not like military bases or contingents of third countries to appear in Georgia after the pullout of Russian bases.

"This would affect our security and it seems to me that Georgiaunderstands this," Putin said.

The withdrawal of Russian military bases in Georgia is a hot-button issue that has soured relations between the two former Soviet republics. Moscow has insisted it needs four years to complete the withdrawal of the two bases while Tbilisi says it must be finished before January 2008.

Tensions over the issue have been brought to new highs in recent weeks with Saakashvili boycotting Moscow's Victory Day extravaganza and US President George W. Bush raising the issue with Putin.

Also on Thursday, Putin and Saakashvili expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the latest round of talks on the withdrawal ofthe Russian bases in Georgia during a telephone conversation, Interfax quoted the Kremlin as saying.

A compromise on the withdrawal deadline, on which Russia and Georgia have moved very close, would guarantee the organized removal of the two bases, the Kremlin said.

Source: Xinhua