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Georgian and Russian diplomats to meet in March

TBILISI, February 15, 2:24 /ITAR-TASS/. Georgian President Zurab Margvelashvili told the Tbilisi-based Rustavi-2 television channel on Friday that Zurab Abashidze, the Georgian prime minister’s special envoy for relations with Russia, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin would meet in Prague early in March to discuss the possibility of arranging a meeting between the Georgian and Russian presidents.

Margvelashvili said in the Rustavi-2 talk show Positisya (Stance) that a meeting between the Georgian and Russian heads of state would help searching for ways to end the stalemate in bilateral relations.

The Georgian president made it clear that Georgia was no longer considering a military solution to problems linked to the Abkhazian and Tskhinval regions.

“The Georgian authorities wish to show that they are ready to have a reasonable discussion of Russia’s interests if it takes due account of Georgia’s interests, its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Margvelashvili emphasized.

He noted that a period of confrontation with Russia was over and that time had come to consider problems in the rational context.

“We should try to reason with the Russian leaders and prove to them that Georgia’s stable and democratic future will not be a threat to Russia but will on the contrary meet the interests of Russia’s strategic development,” Margvelashvili explained.

Abashidze and Karasin have met each other five times. Their spring meeting in Prague will be the sixth.