Zurab Abashidze: "We want to help as much as possible to stabilize the situation in the South Caucasus"

Recently, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported, that a new meeting between the Deputy Foreign Minister, Grigory Karasin, and the Special Representative of the Prime Minister of Georgia for the Relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze, will be held in February. Prague is a traditional place of the meeting. In anticipation of the next round of the informal talks between the two countries Vestnik Kavkaza talked with Zurab Abashidze about its agenda.

- Zurab Iraklievich, what will be the agenda of the February meeting with Grigory Karasin in Prague?

- The topics of our negotiations have been well defined already, the agenda will be  standard. Traditionally, we are discussing the development of the trade and economic relations, transport relations, some humanitarian issues. All these are the practical spheres of our cooperation with Russia and issues related with it, and this time we will continue to talk about these problems.

- How does Georgia assess the effectiveness of the Karasin-Abashidze format of the meetings?

- First of all I would like to point out that in the main format of the negotiations - the Geneva discussions, where the representatives of the international organizations participate- there is neither progress, nor any positive momentum, and we are very worried with this fact. Despite this, we continue the bilateral dialogue, try to create a certain background, so at some stage to move forward with the complex problems.

Speaking about our Karasin-Abashidze  format, we adhere to the philosophy of small steps. Based on this philosophy, we have moved forward in terms of the recovery of trade in 2012: now we have no restrictions on the trade with Russia. The transport links have been also restored. In 2016 a record number of the Russian tourists visited Georgia - about a million people. And now, at this very moment, the Russian tourists are coming to Georgia and resting here, I think this year will be even better for our tourism industry.

Thus, the situation in our relations is controversial: there is some progress in the specific areas, but in terms of the solutions of the most difficult issues and challenges of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia, which concern us the most, there is no progress.

- Will the Georgian authorities continue the Prague format in the future?

- Of course. We intend to continue the dialogue, including the most difficult issues. On our side there is a willingness to do so, and the political will, and we hope that there is such a willingness on the Russian side too. We have managed to solve the issues with those seven citizens of Georgia, who were imprisoned on the charges of espionage in Russia, due to the Prague format. I would like to stress, that it is very important for us to promote stability and peace in the region, where there are so many alarming events and processes. We want to help as much as possible to stabilize the situation in the South Caucasus.