MOSCOW, May 30 -- After years of contentious negotiations that appeared to break down several times, Russia agreed Monday to a timetable for the withdrawal of its forces from two military bases in Georgia, the foreign ministers of both countries said at a news conference here.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country would complete the phased withdrawal of 3,000 troops by 2008. The announcement closed out one of several issues straining relations between the Kremlin and Georgia's pro-Western government, which has said that it wants to join NATO.
The two countries had hoped to complete an agreement before celebrations held in Moscow on May 9 to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, but a deal collapsed at the last minute when Russia said it needed more than three years to pull out.
President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia then boycotted the celebrations and parliament threatened a blockade of the two bases, one of which is located near the border with Turkey and the other near the border with Armenia. The Georgian government also threatened to prevent Russian military forces from crossing Georgian territory, either by land or air, as they do routinely to resupply troops in Armenia.
"We have taken an important and constructive step," Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili said. "We have achieved our goal."
Lavrov said the agreement would "help further develop our relations." He also said that the withdrawal, expected to begin next year, would not cause "any kind of discomfort for the soldiers."
Georgia has offered to house any soldier who wishes to remain behind; a number of Russian troops have been in the country for a long time and have ties to the local community, Georgian officials said. Officials in Moscow have said they do not want soldiers to experience the hardship Russian troops endured in the early 1990s, when Russia was unprepared for their return from Germany and Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Saakashvili also said recently that Georgia would not allow any foreign bases on its territory, a statement apparently designed to ease Russian fears that the United States or NATO would be permitted to station forces permanently in a country that was part of the Soviet Union and where Russia has had a presence for nearly 200 years.
The two foreign ministers also said they had agreed to delimit the Georgian-Russian border, which runs through the Caucasus Mountains and has been a source of tension since the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Relations between the two countries have been strained most severely by separatist conflicts in the Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions of Georgia, where local leaders have received support from Moscow.
Lavrov said Russia would do everything it could to help find a peaceful solution to the conflicts.
