West pushing for Georgia’s opening Russia border
The West has been pushing for opening the border between Russia and
Georgia, whose relations soured after an armed conflict in South
Ossetia in 2008.
Georgia has provided preliminary consent to open the Upper Lars border checkpoint -- a move that was prompted by the European Union’s pressure more than the requests by Armenia, an isolated South Caucasus neighbor, Georgian Pirveli news agency reported.
The report said the EU had called on Tbilisi to prevent the country’s becoming a source of tension in the volatile region and approve reopening the Upper Lars checkpoint. Following trilateral talks in Armenia, a preliminary agreement was reached to open the checkpoint only for the movement of cargo. However, allowing traffic of consignments does not imply lifting the Russian embargo on Georgian goods. Therefore, only transit of commodities through Russia is allowed, and Upper Lars will remain shut for civilians. Thus, a final decision on the issue has not yet been adopted, and talks between the three countries have not been completed.
Armenia is keen on the opening of the border checkpoint, as this only legal crossing of the land border had been pivotal for transporting cargo and passengers to the country before it was closed by Russia in 2006. Given that Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey keep all communication links shut due to Armenia’s occupying a part of Azerbaijani territory, the closure of this hub has taken a dire toll on the ailing Armenian economy.
Upper Lars has a throughout capacity of 400 cars per day, and bringing the figure to 600 vehicles is possible.*
Georgia has provided preliminary consent to open the Upper Lars border checkpoint -- a move that was prompted by the European Union’s pressure more than the requests by Armenia, an isolated South Caucasus neighbor, Georgian Pirveli news agency reported.
The report said the EU had called on Tbilisi to prevent the country’s becoming a source of tension in the volatile region and approve reopening the Upper Lars checkpoint. Following trilateral talks in Armenia, a preliminary agreement was reached to open the checkpoint only for the movement of cargo. However, allowing traffic of consignments does not imply lifting the Russian embargo on Georgian goods. Therefore, only transit of commodities through Russia is allowed, and Upper Lars will remain shut for civilians. Thus, a final decision on the issue has not yet been adopted, and talks between the three countries have not been completed.
Armenia is keen on the opening of the border checkpoint, as this only legal crossing of the land border had been pivotal for transporting cargo and passengers to the country before it was closed by Russia in 2006. Given that Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey keep all communication links shut due to Armenia’s occupying a part of Azerbaijani territory, the closure of this hub has taken a dire toll on the ailing Armenian economy.
Upper Lars has a throughout capacity of 400 cars per day, and bringing the figure to 600 vehicles is possible.*
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