Russia, the European Union and the United States could become guarantors of peace between Georgia and its former republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said.
Speaking during a European Parliament's session in November last year, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili pledged not to attack Abkhazia or South Ossetia to "restore the territorial integrity and sovereignty" of Georgia. Abkhaz and South Ossetian presidents, Sergei Bagapsh and Eduard Kokoity, made similar non-aggression statements in December.
"If a joint declaration is approved, it will provide wider guarantees than any unilateral declarations," Karasin told RIA Novosti during a telephone interview from Geneva, where a regular round of talks on stability and security in Transcaucasia began on Friday.
Russia recognized the independence of the two former Georgian republics following the five-day war in August 2008, which started when Georgia attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control.
Russia earlier presented a draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for an agreement on the non-use of force between Georgia and Abkhazia, amid spiraling violence and fears of a new military conflict in the region. The initiative was blocked by Western nations seeking a comprehensive peace deal that stipulated the return of Georgian refugees to Abkhazia.
Around 300,000 Georgians fled fighting in Abkhazia during a 1992-93 separatist war as the republic looked to break away from Tbilisi, according to Georgia's official reports. Some 10,000-30,000 people on both sides were killed in the conflict.
Germany has proposed a three-stage plan for resolving the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict.
The plan stipulates a commitment to non-violence by all the parties involved in the conflict, the gradual return of Georgian refugees to the region, and the eventual determination of the political status of Abkhazia.
MOSCOW, March 5 (RIA Novosti)
