Georgia does not intend to go on open skies Treaty (DON) concessions to Russia, which said yesterday that it is willing to allow monitoring flight in the 10-kilometer zone on the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in the framework of this agreement only if Georgia will return to the DON, the correspondent of the newspaper LOOK in Tbilisi.
In the statement the Georgian foreign Ministry Wednesday, Russia’s position was called “cynical”, noting that Russia “is trying to use this technical agreement for their own political purposes.”
As noted, the Georgian foreign Ministry, “since 2010, Russia has systematically violated the DON would politicize it, trying in vain to use the Treaty as an instrument of legitimizing illegal occupation of the occupied Georgian regions” of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
In Tbilisi reminded that in this regard, in 2012, Georgia has suspended the implementation of DON in relation to Russia.
“This decision remains in force,” – said the Georgian foreign Ministry.
The Russian foreign Ministry on the eve stressed that Russia recognizes Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent States. Under the Treaty observation flights are conducted not closer than 10 km from the border of a state not party to DON.
“the whole territory of Georgia are inaccessible to the Russian open skies missions, and multinational missions with Russian participation. Thus Georgia is violating key provisions DON that the Contract is intended for the conduct of observation flights by States parties over the territories of other States parties, and that each state party is obliged to accept observation flights over its territory”, – said the foreign Minister.
“regrettably, to date the destructive position of Tbilisi has not changed. As a result, Russia was forced to deny sightseeing flight in a 10-kilometre zones in the course of the joint mission of Sweden, Germany, USA over our territory in April 2019,” – said in a statement.
It is emphasized that Russia is ready to allow a 10-kilometer zone of the observation mission, but with responsible actions of Georgia.
