What hinders relations between Moscow and Tbilisi?The prime minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili who took part in the Munich international security conference shared his vision of the reasons why, despite all the efforts of Moscow and Tbilisi, they still failed to fully normalize bilateral relationship."How can we restore trust between Russia and Georgia? First of all, we have to separate economic relations from politics. Of course, we have made progress in the sphere of trade and in the economic sphere, we have improved our cultural relations," Garibashvili said."But in regard to political issues, there is no progress. It is quite the opposite. I assure you, we have done our best, we have taken many constructive steps to reduce tensions and resolve the problem. We talked about solving this problem, about the de-occupation of our territories and reunification with our brothers and sisters - the Abkhazians and Ossetians. But two months ago, in November Russia signed a new agreement with Abkhazia, and it intends to sign the same document with South Ossetia this month. Russia has not responded to our constructive steps to solve the problem. And so it is very difficult to predict what the next steps of Russia are going to be," the head of the Georgian government said.
The prime minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili who took part in the Munich international security conference shared his vision of the reasons why, despite all the efforts of Moscow and Tbilisi, they still failed to fully normalize bilateral relationship.
"How can we restore trust between Russia and Georgia? First of all, we have to separate economic relations from politics. Of course, we have made progress in the sphere of trade and in the economic sphere, we have improved our cultural relations," Garibashvili said.
"But in regard to political issues, there is no progress. It is quite the opposite. I assure you, we have done our best, we have taken many constructive steps to reduce tensions and resolve the problem. We talked about solving this problem, about the de-occupation of our territories and reunification with our brothers and sisters - the Abkhazians and Ossetians. But two months ago, in November Russia signed a new agreement with Abkhazia, and it intends to sign the same document with South Ossetia this month. Russia has not responded to our constructive steps to solve the problem. And so it is very difficult to predict what the next steps of Russia are going to be," the head of the Georgian government said.
