Georgia will not prevent Russia from joining WTOOctober 8, 2010 - 13:27 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Georgia's Prime Minister Nika Gilauri has said Tbilisi's demand for Russian forces to end their occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is not tied to how Georgia will vote on Moscow's application to join the World Trade Organization. In remarks at Washington, D.C.'s Atlantic Council, Gilauri said Georgia will continue to press for Russian troops to end their occupation of Georgian territory, but that it "has nothing to do" with the WTO vote. He said Georgia will support Moscow's bid if it makes customs checkpoints in the two breakaway regions transparent, as required under WTO rules. Gilauri is in Washington this week with a delegation of senior Georgian officials for a meeting of the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Commission. He met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on October 6, RFE/RL reported. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |