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Georgia stands for rational, calm dialog with Russia — president

Georgia’s top officials have had no contacts with Moscow since 2008

Georgian President Georgy Margvelashvili AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov

Georgian President Georgy Margvelashvili

© AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov

TBILISI, August 31. /TASS/. Georgia wishes to have a rational and calm dialog with Russia, President Georgy Margvelashvili said at a meeting with students of a summer youth school in the Black Sea resort of Anakliya.

"Georgia is keen to avoid a worsening of relations with Russia and it seeks a rational and calm dialog with it," he said.

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Georgia’s top officials have had no contacts with Moscow since 2008. Following the August 2008 hostilities that promptly began to be referred to as "the Five-Day War," Moscow recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. As a result, Tbilisi severed diplomatic ties with Moscow.

Since December 2012, there have been quarterly meetings between the Georgian Prime Minister’s Special Envoy, Zurab Abashidze and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin. The two men discuss mostly cooperation in trade, transport and the economy and humanitarian issues.

Earlier, Georgia’s former parliamentary speaker, Nino Burjanadze, over the past few years leader of the oppositional party Democratic Union-United Georgia said that "the dialog on trading, economic, cultural and humanitarian issues alone was not enough."

In her opinion "full-scale normalization of relations between the two countries requires negotiations between top officials on all accrued acute problems.".

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