Georgia failed to reach an agreement with Russia on its entry into the World Trade Organization during talks yesterday in Geneva, Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said.

Talks ended with “no result” and will be continued, Vashadze told reporters today in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Russia hasn’t accepted the “concrete demands and compromises” offered by Georgia, Vashadze said, declining to disclose further details of the negotiations.

Switzerland has mediated between Georgia and Russia, which fought a five-day war in 2008, in their WTO negotiations. Russia, the largest economy outside the world trade arbiter, has been trying to join the organization since 1993, surpassing the 15 years China had to wait before becoming a member. While the U.S. and the European Union back Russian membership, its southern neighbor Georgia has blocked its accession.

Maxim Medvedkov, Russia’s chief negotiator for membership in the WTO, declined to comment on yesterday’s talks, citing a confidentiality agreement between the three countries. Only the Swiss Foreign Ministry, as a representative of the organizers, will comment on the results, Medvedkov said in a telephone interview today.

Georgia, a WTO member that can block Russia’s membership, objects to customs checkpoints in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia insists its opposition isn’t related to Russia’s five-year-old trade embargo against the Black Sea country.

Bloomberg