Georgia calls for peaceful resolution of S. Ossetia conflict
ASTANA, December 1 (RIA Novosti) - The Georgian president said on Wednesday Tbilisi was ready to forge a peaceful dialogue with Moscow to resolve the conflict over South Ossetia.
"We hope that the tragic facts will and can be revised and that the conflict with Russia can be resolved. We need a full-fledged dialogue, not a confrontation," Mikheil Saakashvili said at the summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
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Saakashvili said he had sent the official statement to the OSCE, United Nations and NATO, as well as the European Commission, EU and to the U.S. president. "I call again on the Russian leadership to hold serious talks," he said.
"We want to establish a space free of dividing lines; it is essential that the OSCE takes a decisive position and does not turn away from the real problems," the Georgian president said.
Saakashvili said that Georgia was committed to the peaceful resolution of its conflict with Russia and would not use force to restore its territorial integrity in a speech at the European Parliament on November 23.
Relations between Russia and Georgia have been sour since a brief war in August 2008 over the former Georgian republic of South Ossetia, which was attacked by Georgian forces in an attempt to bring it back under central control.
Russia recognized South Ossetia and another former Georgian republic, Abkhazia, as independent states two weeks after the conflict. Georgia considers the two regions part of its sovereign territory.
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