Transport alternative to "Upper Lars" takes on concrete outlines:  Russia and Georgia are selected for a solution

ArmInfo. Next week in Prague, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Georgian Special Envoy for Relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze will hold talks. One of the topics of the meeting will be the implementation of the 2011 agreement on cargo monitoring at the Russian-Georgian border.

In conversation with corr. "Kommersant" Deputy Foreign Minister of the RF Grigory Karasin said that Moscow has high hopes for this agreement. "We expect that it will give a powerful impetus to trade in the region, because what were the difficulties for international trade that arose after 2008. Since Georgia did not recognize the formation of two new independent states on its former territory, there was uncertainty about where the now its customs border.So the agreement of 2011 brought the necessary clarity to this issue.In this international agreement the precise geographical coordinates of the places reserved for the Georgian customs service This is the Kazbegi region on the border with Russia, a place south of the Inguri River (beyond which the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia begins) and the neighborhood of Gori (near the border with the Republic of South Ossetia), "said Gregory Karasin, adding that Moscow and Tbilisi intend to finish domestic procedures in order to sign the necessary documents in the coming months. After that, the agreement will work.

We note that Yerevan is considering the implementation of the 2011 agreement on cargo monitoring at the Russian-Georgian border as alternative to the Upper Lars checkpoint, which is the only overland route linking Armenia to Russia. In winter, at the checkpoint due to the threat of avalanche collapse there are clusters of trucks, a similar situation occurs in the spring and autumn periods, when there is a threat of debris flow. At one of the government sessions, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan instructed the Transport Ministry to develop alternative transport communications with Russia and hold talks on this issue with the Russian and Georgian sides.

Earlier, the Georgian government agreed to open an alternative CCI "Kazbegi-Upper Lars" way for cargo transportation from Georgia to Russia, but only in case of force majeure. By force majeure, natural phenomena are implied, due to which the road towards Lars, the only official checkpoint on the land border between Georgia and Russia, closes, and long lines of trailers, mainly from Armenia, are built there. For the most part, problems are in the winter, because of the snowfall and the danger of avalanches. But spring landslides are no less dangerous. "Kazbegi - Upper Lars" is the only functioning border crossing point on Georgia's land border with Russia.