Russia may join the World Trade Organization without getting any approval from Georgia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
"I do not want to go into details on how it could be done without Georgia's consent," Lavrov said during his current visit to Abkhazia. "All I can say is these opportunities are stipulated under the WTO statute."
Georgian-Russian WTO talks resumed on March 10 in Switzerland after being suspended for almost three years following Russia's decision to lift economic sanctions against Georgia's breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in April 2008.
The second round of talks is expected to start by the end of April.
Russia has been in membership talks with the 153-nation WTO for 17 years and remains the only major economy still outside the organization. The European Union gave its formal backing to the country's entry bid in December last year after Russia agreed to trim timber export duties and rail freight tariffs.
However, Georgia says it will not allow Russia to join the global free trade club unless it cedes control of customs in the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Tbilisi earlier admitted that Russia could in theory join the WTO without Georgia's consent but said it would be unprecedented.
Georgia severed diplomatic relations with Russia in August 2008 when Moscow recognized the independence of the two former Georgian republics following a five-day war, which started when Georgia attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control.
SUKHUMI (Abkhazia), April 26 (RIA Novosti)
