OREANDA-NEWS. September 12, 2008. A telephone conversation between Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took place at the American side’s initiative.

The ministers discussed questions of the bilateral agenda, including a schedule of consultations on strategic stability issues and on a number of international questions, including the Iranian nuclear program and the situation in the Caucasus.

Regarding the situation surrounding South Ossetia and Abkhazia in the context of the results of the Moscow September 8 talks between the Russian and French presidents, Lavrov stressed that the Russian side will continue to undertake energetic efforts to stabilize the region in line with the accords reached between Dmitry Medvedev and Nicolas Sarkozy. The Minister stressed that, as is written down in these accords, extra international observers will be deployed solely in the zones abutting South Ossetia and Abkhazia in order to prevent new aggression by Tbilisi, with the European Union acting as the guarantor of the nonuse of force against Tskhinval and Sukhum.

As to security arrangements inside these states, they have already been made by the stationing of Russian military contingents there on the basis of Russia’s bilateral treaties with South Ossetia and Abkhazia.