Report: Georgia warns on Russia-WTO negotiations

Reuters is reporting that Georgia’s man in Geneva has warned other World Trade Organization members that negotiations with Russia–facilitated by the Swiss–are not going well: Georgia’s ambassador in Geneva has taken the unusual step of writing to all members of the World Trade Organisation to warn them about the rocky state of its talks with ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Reuters is reporting that Georgia's man in Geneva has warned other World Trade Organization members that negotiations with Russia--facilitated by the Swiss--are not going well:

Reuters is reporting that Georgia’s man in Geneva has warned other World Trade Organization members that negotiations with Russia–facilitated by the Swiss–are not going well:

Georgia’s ambassador in Geneva has taken the unusual step of writing to all members of the World Trade Organisation to warn them about the rocky state of its talks with Russia on Moscow’s bid to join the global trading club.

Georgia has an effective veto over Russian membership of the WTO and has said it will not be bullied into letting its giant neighbour join if the terms are not fair, despite pressure from Moscow, Washington and Brussels for a deal this year.

In the confidential letter, which was circulated on Aug. 12 and obtained by Reuters on Thursday, Georgian Ambassador Zurab Tchiaberashvili said talks with Russia on Aug. 9-10 had failed to achieve any breakthrough on the issue of border controls between the two countries.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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