Saakashvili Undecided over CIS Summit

A decision on whether or not President Saakashvili will attend a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has not been made yet, Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said on May 23.

An informal summit of CIS leaders is scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg on June 10.

Bezhuashvili said that the Georgian side had requested a bilateral meeting between President Saakashvili and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of the summit.

?We have already received an invitation [for the summit] and we have requested a [bilateral] meeting? We will let you know when we take the final decision on whether to participate or not,? Bezhuashvili told reporters.

Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze, who is currently visiting Portugal for a NATO Parliamentary Assembly session, told reporters that Georgia was ?always ready for a very constructive dialogue on existing problems? with Russia.

The Georgian and Russian presidents last met in November 2006 in Minsk, Belarus, also on the sidelines of a CIS summit.

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