AlQa'dah 29, 1432, Oct 27, 2011, SPA -- Talks between Moscow and Tbilisi on Russia's membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have failed because of a territorial dispute resulting from their 2008 war, dpa quoted a senior Kremlin official as saying on Thursday. Russia has no intention of participating in further formal WTO-related talks with Georgian representatives in the Swiss city Geneva, except for a concluding conference scheduled for November 10, said Russian delegation head Maksim Medvedikov. Medvedikov's statement to the Interfax news agency came on the second day of meetings between Russian and Georgian government officials designed to resolve trade disputes between the two countries. Switzerland is acting as a mediator in the talks. A country may join the WTO only if all existing members resolve bilateral disputes with the prospective member ahead of time. Most members, including the United States and the European Union, have declared approval for Russia joining the group, but Georgia has not. "Progress depends on the Russian side," said Sergei Kandaladze, Georgia's vice foreign minister, in Tbilisi. "We have made new offers." Talks were at loggerheads because Georgia was insisting Russia accept the stationing of international customs officers and border control officials at frontier crossings between Russia and the Caucasian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Medvedikov said. Currently, Abkahzian and South Ossetian officials work the border checkpoints, with Russians on the other side. Russia is the only major nation to have recognized both regions as independent. Georgia lost control over the provinces in the early 1990s after a civil war. Though formally considered part of Georgia by almost the entire international community, but not Russia, both territories have enjoyed de facto independence from Tbilisi since then. A Georgian attempt to reassert control over South Ossetia in August 2008 was stopped by Russia, whose forces routed the Georgian army in a five-day war, with the assistance of Abkhazian troops. With the world's llth-largest economy, Russia is by far the most powerful economic player not yet a member of the WTO.
