TBILISI, July 09. /ITAR-TASS/. Georgia is waiting for Russia’s initiative to “deescalate” tensions in relations between the two countries, Georgian President Georgy Margvelashvili said after a meeting with the NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai on Wednesday, July 9.
Margvelashvili and Appathurai discussed “many issues, including the state of Georgian-Russian relations”, which the president said “have long been in a complex stage but especially so after 2008”.
“After coming to power, the present government of Georgia lent positive dynamics to the normalization of relations between the two countries and took certain steps to this end,” he said.
The president noted that the dialogue between the Georgian prime minister’s special representative for relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin had created “many interesting topics, especially in trade and economic relations between Georgia and Russia”, and “further exploration of these topics and development of cooperation between the two countries is very important”.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili said many times that “the Georgian authorities will continue the constructive policy of normalizing relations with Russia”.
He believes that “the policy to normalize relations with Russia has already produced certain results and led to constructive steps on the part of Russia to develop cooperation in such fields as trade, economy, culture, and transport”.
Margvelashvili said in June his country was seeking to ease tensions with Russia as much as possible.
“Georgia is doing its best to ease tensions with Russia as much as possible and lower the political temperature in our relations to the minimum,” he said.
The president noted that signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union on June 27 and the country’s integration with Europe would not run counter to Russia’s strategic interests.