Obama supports Tbilisi’s aspiration to improve relations with Moscow
By Jamila Babayeva
U.S. President Barack Obama said he appreciated the aspiration of the Georgian side to improve the relations with Russia, Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze told media in Washington D.C. on February 25.
Panjikidze is on a visit to the United States as part of a Georgian delegation led by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili. The delegates met with U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden.
"The American leader considered our efforts to improve relations with Russia as a positive step," she said. "President Obama has called on us to be constructive in the future."
The representatives of the new Georgian authorities, who came to power following parliamentary elections in October 2012, announced the normalization of relations with Russia as one of their priorities.
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 two rebel regions -South Ossetia and Abkhazia- and later recognized the regions. Georgia announced the two unrecognized republics as occupied territories in September 2008.