(Trend.
Lavrov was speaking with reporters about results of a meeting between top-level officials from the Foreign Ministries of Germany, France, Russia, UK and the U.S. which make up a Group of Friend of the UN Secretary General on Georgia. The meeting was held in New York on a sideline of the General Assembly Session on September 22.
Our partners share concerns about state of affairs in respect of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict resolution process, Lavrov said.
He said that the Russian side has informed the Group of Friends about multiple violation of the existing agreements by the Georgian side by deploying its troops in upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia.
Lavrov also noted that the Russian side is also concerned about Georgia's refusal to let the Russian peacekeeping forces monitor upper Kodori Gorge together with the UN observers.
We have also drawn our partners' attention on the fact that Georgia is purchasing a large number of offensive weapons, Lavrov said.
We hope that next month, when the UN Security Council discusses its resolution on prolongation of mandate of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia, the Security Council members will reflect in this document a principled assessment which will be based on facts and will call on the Georgian side to adhere to its commitments and on the Abkhaz side to resume talks. As far as I know the Abkhaz side is ready for this, the Russian Foreign Minister said.
[Abkhaz leader] Sergey Bagapsh has proposed a concrete plan for discussion with the Georgian counterparts, which is called Key to the Future.' There is the Georgian side's proposal as well, which is called roadmap.' The Abkhaz side, as far as I understand, is ready to find a mutual ways towards the normalization of situation based on these two documents. We will be insisting on reflection of these elements in the resolution which the Security Council plans to approve This October, Lavrov stated.
The Russian Foreign Minister again noted that in his speech to the UN General Assembly Session on September 22 Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has distorted facts while criticizing the Russian-led peacekeeping operations in the conflict zones.
I think having hot' and not frozen' conflicts in this region [South Caucasus] is not in a long-term interest of those [countries], which try to have their influence there [in the region], Lavrov said.