Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 3 /Trend, E.Tariverdiyeva/
OSCE summit in Astana was not able to make a positive trend in Russian-Georgian relations, experts say.
"I am afraid that results or non-results of the Summit show that the OSCE as an organization has very little leverage at all in the solution of conflicts in South Caucasus," said Michael Emerson, analyst at the Centre for European Policy Studies.
The OSCE summit, not conducted over the last 11 years, was held in Astana on Dec. 1-2 under Kazakhstan's chairmanship to the organization. The summit brought together heads of states and governments of all OSCE member countries.
At the OSCE summit in Astana, the views of the participating countries divided on the issue of territorial borders of Georgia. Russia's disagreement to consider Abkhazia and South Ossetia as conflict zones in Georgia has complicated the adoption of the final declaration of the summit.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier told reporters that Russia would not sign the final documents if Abkhazia and South Ossetia are mentioned as a conflict zone in Georgia. The Russian Foreign Ministry was dissatisfied with the outcome of the summit, saying that a consensus was reached.
The Foreign Ministry of Georgia considers that the adoption of only declaration at the summit of such level as the OSCE summit in Astana indicates that the organization is in crisis and under the existing system of decision-making it is impossible to solve major problems, Foreign Ministry's statement says.
Military actions were launched in the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia in August 2008. Georgian troops entered Tskhinvali, with Russian troops later occupying the city. The Russian armed forces drove the Georgian military back into Georgia proper. Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on Aug. 26 and established diplomatic ties with the de facto states on Sept. 9, 2008.
According to experts, the Astana summit failed to managed settlement of the conflict in Georgia.
Russia previously intended to ruin negotiations on settlement of conflicts in the OSCE summit in Astana, Georgian expert on the conflicts in the Caucasus, Mamuka Areshidze, told Trend.
"We can say that Moscow was preparing to ruin these negotiations, and although the exchange of views on the conflicts took place at the summit, decision was not made, and therefore, this part of the summit can be considered a failure," he said.
According to Member of Trend Expert Council, editor-in-chief of analytical information portal Vestnik Kavkaza (Bulletin of the Caucasus), Deputy Dean of History Department of Moscow State University Alexei Vlasov, the biggest challenge for the OSCE is matters of conflict resolution.
"There are rules of game that can be agreed before the summit. The topic of Georgia and Abkhazia was discussed even more actively than Nagorno-Karabakh," the expert said.
In fact, the game continues at the summit itself with zero-sum opportunities, Vlasov said.
"This is an indication that some representatives of the Western countries came to the summit as an opportunity to demonstrate Russia the support for Georgia," Vlasov said.
According to Director of the Center for Analysis and the Security of Georgia David Smith, the debates, conducted within the OSCE summit, are good for sobering up Russia. According to him, although the summit did not give a sense of security, but the debate was useful. "It was hard to expect Russian participation in regional security, but the tone and the discussions in Astana were useful for sobering up Russia," said Smith told reporters.
According to Emerson, the reasons for OSCE's inability to influence the settlement of the conflicts in the South Caucasus are: whether the conflict parties are ready to move towards an agreement; whether the major parts external to the conflict agree about what the solution would be; whether the format of the OSCE itself with the 56 member-states is a good format for getting results.
"I'm afraid you could stop with the first reason whether the conflict parties are capable of envisaging the compromised solution, and there is no evidence that it is possible at present for any of the conflicts - Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, Ossetia, Transnistria," he said.
Areshidze believes that the OSCE has not yet been able to raise the bar in the settlement of the conflict, though, does not give up its positions and step back.
"Europe must make Russia more dependent on Europe and not allow Russia opportunities for maneuver, in which Moscow will be able to retreat," said the expert.