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Candidate for PM says Georgia will continue pragmatic policy in relations with Russia

The voting on confidence to the new cabinet and the prime minister will be held at a plenary session of the parliament in Kutaisi on December 29

Giorgi Kvirikashvili, a candidate for Georgia’s prime minister EPA/LAURENT DUBRULE

Giorgi Kvirikashvili, a candidate for Georgia’s prime minister

© EPA/LAURENT DUBRULE

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Georgia’s prime minister resigns

TBILISI, December 28. /TASS/. Georgia will continue pragmatic policy in its relations with Russia, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, a candidate for Georgia’s prime minister, said on Monday.

"Pragmatic policy in relations with Russia will be continued, naturally, on the basis of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said at parliamentary hearings on candidacies to Georgian government.

The Georgian parliament’s factions and committees are having a session in Kutaisi to discuss the candidatures of Kvirikashvili and other government members. The voting on confidence to the new cabinet and the prime minister will be held at a plenary session of the parliament in Kutaisi on December 29.

Kvirikashvili said earlier he would submit the previous cabinet’s members to the parliament for a vote of confidence. "At the moment I have decided to present the same cabinet members to the parliament and I am going to give the foreign affairs portfolio to [first deputy foreign minister] Mikheil Janelidze," he said. Apart from that, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Dmitry Kumsishvili will concurrently take the office of deputy prime minister in the new government

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On Friday, the parliamentary majority made up of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition decided to nominate Foreign Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili as a candidate for the prime minister instead of Irakly Garibashvili who had stepped down on Wednesday.

President Giorgi Margvelashvili approved the candidate and submitted his candidacy to the parliament for approval.

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