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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Switzerland to represent Russia in Georgia |
| 2008-12-14 |
| Russia and Switzerland agreed on Saturday that Moscow's interests in Georgia would be represented through an interests section in the Swiss embassy in Tbilisi, the country's foreign ministers said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised the deal as a step towards improving ties with Tbilisi, three months after diplomatic relations between the two ex-Soviet states were severed in the wake of the Russia-Georgia war. "We are grateful for our Swiss colleagues for this agreement. Undoubtedly it will serve the goal of normalising the situation," Lavrov said at a press conference alongside his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey. Neutral Switzerland has experience in allowing its embassies to serve as points of contact between countries with frosty ties. There are interests sections for the United States in the Swiss embassies in Cuba and Iran. Georgia and Russia shut their embassies in each other's capitals in September following their five-day war in August. Georgia formally broke diplomatic ties with Russia to protest Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist region, as independent states. |
| Posted by:Fred |