Tbilisi Should Take First Step to Improve Ties ? Russian Deputy FM

Georgia should take the first step to help normalize bilateral relations, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Grigory Karasin, told Interfax news agency on December 12.

“We welcome the possibility of normalization of relations with Georgia, but Georgia, which has cut diplomatic ties with Russia, should take the first steps,” Karasin said. “As far as Georgia’s territorial integrity is concerned, the present Georgian authorities, through their criminal decision in August, have put a dot on this issue,” he added.

Georgian Foreign Minister, Grigol Vashadze, said recently that Tbilisi was willing to re-establish diplomatic relations with Moscow. He, however, also said: “There will never be three embassies on the Georgian soil.”

Russia established diplomatic ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia after recognizing the independence of these two breakaway regions and appointed ambassadors to Sokhumi and Tskhinvali.

Vashadze also said Georgia was ready to discuss anything with Russia, except of “three fundamental principles” – independence; sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia.

Meanwhile, on December 13 Foreign Ministers of Russia and Switzerland signed a formal treaty according to which Bern will represent Russia’s diplomatic interests in Georgia.

The decision is "proof of the trust the Russian government has placed in Switzerland," Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said after talks in Moscow with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Georgia asked Switzerland to represent its interests in Moscow. Calmy-Rey said the Swiss government was prepared to do so if Russia in principle agreed to the idea and the modalities, the Swiss media sources reported.

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