Azernews.Az

Despite the actions of Russia, Georgia will continue to carry out a pragmatic policy towards Moscow, Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili said on June 28 in Batumi at the opening of the conference on the defence and security of Georgia.

"Inadequate steps followed from Moscow despite a change of rhetoric and the first steps for improving relations with Russia, which wedged into our territory by another 300 metres," Ivanishvili said.

Georgia says that Russia sanctioned the demarcation works of Russian frontiers on the border of Georgia's separatist regions.

Georgia and Russia, its giant northern neighbor, have maintained no diplomatic relations since a brief war in 2008. Tbilisi broke off relations with Moscow in August 2008 when Moscow crushed a Georgian assault to reassert control over the two rebel regions -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- and later recognized the breakaway regions. Georgia announced the two unrecognized republics as occupied territories in September 2008.

Georgian Defence Minister Irakli Alasania, Deputy Prime Ministers Giorgi Margvelashvili and Kakha Kaladze, as well as other members of the Cabinet of Ministers are participating at the two-day conference in Batumi.

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence Evelyn Farkas, British Minister for International Security Strategy Andrew Murrison, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Sir Richard Shirreff, commander of ISAF General Joseph Dunford, the Director of Force Planning at the NATO Defence Policy and Planning Division of the NATO International Staff Frank Boland, Polish senator Bogdan Klich and the ambassadors of the NATO member states and heads of the Joint Staff are among the invited officials.

The representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Georgia, as well as those of the national security sector, non-governmental and international organisations are also participating in the conference.

Issues such as the Euro-Atlantic security, NATO enlargement, current reforms in the field of defence, the ISAF operation as well as the strategic importance of the Black Sea region and the democratic development of Georgia will be discussed during the conference.