Putin, Saakashvili Call for ‘Normalization’ of Ties

After talks with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili in St. Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that relations between the two countries “are not normal” and the conversation, which was “very frank,” aimed at finding a way out of this situation.
 
“We have agreed with Mikheil Nikolayevich [Saakashvili] that both Georgia and Russia should take steps directed at normalizing our relations and towards creating good conditions for the development of interstate links,” Vladimir Putin said on June 14 at a joint news conference with President Saakashvili after their talks, which started at about 11 pm local time on June 13.

“We have agreed to improve the mechanism of our interaction and we will do this in the near future,” he added.

“Naturally, during this brief conversation which took place between us, these problems could not be solved, but I want to stress that we have a desire to work over these [problems] jointly,” Putin stated.

President Saakashvili said during the joint news conference that the major issue in the relationship between Russia and Georgia is the secessionist conflicts.

“There are unsolved problems related with the conflicts and aggressive separatism in the Caucasus, which is not in the interest of any party. And naturally we are counting on the position of Russia, which has supported Georgia’s peace plan on resolving the South Ossetian conflict at the OSCE Ministerial Council in Ljubljana [in December, 2005]. And we are counting on other positive steps by Russia and on the personal participation of Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] in resolving all of the existing problems, which are obstacles in our relationship,” Saakashvili said.
 
“It is very good that you have found time for this meeting, because many unsolved problems have accumulated recently in the relationship between Georgia and Russia, which is a source of serious concern for us. Historically, problems in the Caucasus have always been solved correctly and relatively harmlessly when Georgia was with Russia and when tough problems were solved through joint efforts and joint energy. Unfortunately, today there is not this kind of coordination and we are willing to establish this kind of coordination,” he added.

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