GEORGIAN FM ON THE FRIENDS PLAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L TBILISI 001160 STATE FOR EUR/CARC E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/03/2018 TAGS: GG PGOV PREL SUBJECT: GEORGIAN FM ON THE FRIENDS PLAN Classified By: Ambassador John F. Tefft for reasons 1.4. (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) On July 3, Georgian FM Eka Tkeshelashvili met with the Western Friends of Georgia to discuss the status of the plan from the Friends meetings in Berlin on June 30. Representatives from the German, British and French embassies joined the meeting. The German ambassador acknowledged that she awaited final confirmation of the plan, and she noted German FM Steinmeier's personal involvement in the meeting. She hoped for confirmation of the plan by the Russians prior to the upcoming G-8 summit. ¶2. (C) Tkeshelashvili emphasized Georgia's need for concrete results on de-escalation and the replacement of the current security format in the first phase of the implementation of the plan. She said that the Abkhaz demand that Georgia withdraw from the upper Kodori immediately was not acceptable. Georgia was looking up front for the beginning of the withdrawal of Russian troops and the rollback of Russian implementation of Putin's April 16 instructions. The FM said that she did not want there to be any misunderstanding among the western Friends about the urgency of rolling back Russian efforts and addressing a new security framework in phase one. ¶3. (C) The German Ambassador reported that Germany has placed Abkhazia on the agenda for its discussions with the Russian president at the G-8 summit. ¶4. (C) In a private conversation with Tkeshelashvili on the margins of the western Friends meeting, Ambassador Tefft raised the issue of recent explosions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He expressed concern that while we could not confirm the perpetrators of these acts, it was important that they be stopped. He told the FM that he hoped the Georgians were not involved. The FM cited these explosions as an example of why security is necessary for the conflict reasons. She said that Georgia wants to show, with its own concrete actions, that it is committed to peace. TEFFT