Beruchashvili: we are not preparing high-level contacts with Russia yet

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Georgian Republic, Tamar Beruchashvili, said on Friday that Tbilisi has not yet decided on its position on contacts with Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the annual press conference on Thursday said that Moscow would be glad to see representatives of the Georgian government if Tbilisi wishes to do so. "If the Georgian leadership deems it possible, we will be glad to have a representative of Georgia - the president and the prime minister - in Moscow," he said. "Georgia should decide on its position at such a meeting. While, at this stage, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not considering this issue, and we are engaged in the Geneva negotiations. There are a kind of negotiations between  Georgian Prime Ministerial Envoy Zurab Abashidze and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Grigory Karasin, but this dialogue is still in pause mode, because no date of the next meeting has been determined," the head of the Georgian Foreign Ministry is quoted by "Interfax-Azerbaijan".

Beruchashvili stressed that "dialogue with Russia in any format should serve the interests of the Georgian state." She also noted that "Tbilisi wants to get such signals from Moscow too, that are not contrary to international law and the universal values which Russia itself has signed up to."