Bidzina Ivanishvili of Georgian Dream has given the first comments after the first meeting with President Mikheil Saakashvili. The meeting took half an hour. Ivanishvili said that they talked about foreign political priorities, membership in the EU and NATO.
Saakashvili noted that Georgia was undergoing a democratic process of power transition.
Alexander Skakov, a coordinator of a working group of the Center for Studies of the Caucasus and Central Asia of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the RAS, told Vestnik Kavkaza that it was hard for Saakashvili to oppose the winner of the parliamentary polls and Ivanishvili had no need to make deals with the president.
The expert commented on the new government formed by Georgian Dream as a good choice. But the new Cabinet would not change Georgian foreign policy, he believes. Georgian policy will become more predictable, it will be developed in Tbilisi, not Washington. Skakov says that Ivanishvili’s victory was more of a US project than Georgian.
Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Paata Zakarieshvili announced plans to reconsider the law on occupied territories. Skakov noted that Saakashvili’s most odious laws will be reconsidered with arrival of the new power. Criminalization of visits to Abkhazia and South Ossetia may be lifted.
Concerning Sukhumi and Tskhinvali, Georgia will follow policy of Washington and Brussels to interact with the breakaway republics without recognition, the expert assumes. Georgia may simplify involvement of European and US companies in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Skakov does not rule out improvement of Russian-Georgian relations, but diplomatic ties will not be restored in the near future, as stated by candidate for Foreign Minister Maya Panjikidze.
Possible changes in relations of Tbilisi with Baku and Yerevan may base on a more realistic and sensitive approach to western advice. Georgia may be used as a platform to attack Iran, Skakov concludes.
