TBILISI, October 7. /TASS/. No new negotiations between Tbilisi and Moscow were panned after a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries in New York, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili told a final press conference with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is staying in Tbilisi on an official visit.
"Nothing was planned. There was one meeting [between the Georgian and Russian foreign ministers — TASS], which may lead to some form of the de-escalation of the situation. We will see whether there will be subsequent stages, but now we have nothing planned yet," Zourabichvili said.
The Georgian president also noted the importance of negotiations for resolving the Georgian-Russian issues and called on the Western partners to contribute to it. "During my speech in the UN I said that when a country like Georgia unilaterally rejected the use of force for solving a conflict situation and the occupation problem, there is one way left — diplomacy. On the path of diplomacy we ask our partners, including Germany, France and the US, to never forget about Georgia," she added.
On September 26, Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs David Zalkaliani met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly for the first time since 2008, when Tbilisi broke diplomatic ties with Moscow after Russia had recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Since then, the only direct dialogue between officials of the two states was the format of regular meetings between the special representative for the Georgian prime minister and the Russian deputy foreign minister.