Russia and Georgia signed on November 9 a bilateral agreement, completing WTO talks, Georgian negotiator, Sergi Kapanadze, said.

“We are very glad that after hesitation, Russia accepted the Swiss proposal; that is very important for us, because this is the first time when an international monitoring will be carried out on movement of cargo between Russia and Georgia, which also involves [cargo going in and from] Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region,” Kapanadze told Georgian TV station, Rustavi 2, via phone from Geneva on November 9.

The package of documents includes bilateral agreement between the Russian and Georgian governments on customs administration and trade monitoring, he said. The package also includes documents related to the mandate of third, neutral party, Switzerland, which will hire a private company in charge of monitoring of trade. Kapanadze also said that the sides have also exchanged notes on terms of operation of a company, which will be monitoring the trade; these terms, he said, include provisions guaranteeing the company’s neutral operations.