Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on November 1 that the sides discussed “all the painful issues” in the countries’ bilateral relations.
“We have talked about every aspect of Russian-Georgian relations; we talked about absolutely everything for an hour and a half. It is a difficult conversation, but I want to tell you that we hope that the Russian side understood and we make them understand all those issues that are so painful in bilateral relations and also that the methods through which we counter each other are inadmissible,” Bezhuashvili said in his brief comments made for the Georgian reporters.
In a short statement issued after the talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that “bilateral issues, as well as situation surrounding resolution process of the Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts, were discussed.”
“The Russian side has once again explained in details those conditions in which the return of Russian-Georgian relations to a normal course would be possible,” the Russian Foreign Ministry’s information note reads. The note does not go into detail about these “conditions.”
No other details of the talks have been reported.
In his remarks made to the press before the talks Sergey Lavrov said that the meeting was taking place against the background of “not the best times for bilateral relations.”
“I hope that after this meeting more clarity will appear about what we should do to improve the situation,” Lavrov said.
“We are ready to direct our relations towards the course which is relevant to our historic links. And all this should of course be based on mutual respect and taking into consideration each others interests,” Gela Bezhuashvili said in his opening remarks.
The meeting, which took place on the sideline of the summit of Foreign Ministers from the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC), was the first high-level talk since the worst crisis of recent years erupted between Russia and Georgia in late September.
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