PRAGUE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2019) Georgia's aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the alliance's military exercises held on the Georgian territory curb the development of Moscow-Tbilisi relations, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigoriy Karasin told Sputnik.
"Of course, there are remaining difficulties in the process of development of our relations with Georgia. The main of them is the pro-NATO agenda of Tbilisi, the Georgian authorities' aspirations to be as close as possible to the Euro-Atlantic structures and large-scale military exercises held on the territory of this country," Karasin, who is also the Russian ministry's state secretary, said after his talks with the Georgian prime minister's special representative for relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze, in Prague on Wednesday.
Moscow is convinced that these Georgia's aspirations represent the main threat for the improvement of its bilateral relations with Russia and has been communicating these concerns to the Georgian representatives at the bilateral talks, according to Karasin.
The diplomat noted the implementation of the bilateral agreement on the principles of monitoring and control over bilateral trade, which was signed in November 2011, has recently begun. Karasin recalled that in early February, the first session on a joint committee on the implementation of the deal was held in Geneva.
Diplomatic relations between Georgia and Russia were severed in 2008, shortly after Moscow recognized the independence of Georgia's two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russian officials have repeatedly stated that this recognition reflects existing realities and cannot be reconsidered. The dialogue between the countries is maintained within the framework of the Geneva discussions and negotiations between Karasin and Abashidze.
