France plans conference on stability in Caucasus
(PARIS) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to announce an international conference on stability in the Caucasus after talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev Monday, a French diplomat said.
"We will in all likelihood have an international conference on the question of stability in the region. It should be announced by the French president in agreement with Medvedev," the diplomat said.
The sixth and final point of a French-brokered accord to end the conflict between Russia and Georgia calls for international talks on "security and stability" in the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
According to Paris, the sixth point is "one of the difficulties" in securing the plan's full application by Russia.
The diplomat stressed the need to widen the talks to other regional players, most importantly Turkey as the biggest investor in Georgia and the arrival point of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline that crosses Georgia from the Caspian.
The Turks "hold the key to the Georgian problem" the diplomat said. "It is as simple as that."
On Monday, European leaders decided to suspend talks with Moscow on a new EU-Russia partnership pact until Russian troops pull back to the positions they held before the outbreak of fighting in Georgia.
The EU leaders also agreed that Sarkozy, the main player in Europe's diplomacy efforts, would travel to Moscow and Tbilisi with EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso on Monday to push for full application of the peace plan.
Russia sent tanks and troops into Georgia on August 8, a day after Tbilisi launched an offensive to regain control of breakaway South Ossetia.
Moscow halted its offensive after five days but refused to withdraw all its troops, saying they are on a peacekeeping mission. Georgia has labeled them an occupation force.
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