TBILISI, July 14. /TASS/. Georgia has no plans to revise or expand the format of its dialogue with Russia, Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili said on Tuesday.
"The current dialogue format, Abashidze-Karasin, will stay in place, as will another format — the Geneva consultations," he told journalists. "At the current stage, we have no plans to revise or expand the dialogue format with Russia."
Garibashvili’s statement came amidst disagreement between local politicians over further dialogue between the two countries. Some call to stop further Abashidze-Karasin contacts, while others call foe extended dialogue ultimately involving the two countries’ top officials.
Meanwhile, Nino Burdzhanadze, a former speaker of the Georgian parliament and the leader of the political party Democratic Movement United Georgia, said she had been given to understand during her meetings in Moscow on July 9-11 that "Russia is ready for direct dialogue and talks with Georgia to find ways of settling relations between the two countries, and now it’s for Georgia to speak up."
Over the past moths, Garibashvili was reported to say he was ready to meet with the Russian president, but this meeting should be carefully planned and prepared so that it could yield results. "So far, I think it is too early to say about when such a meeting could be held or in which format," he said.
Under the new edition of the Georgian constitution that came into force in November 2013, the prime minister is the head of the country’s executive branch and has all the administrative levers.