Tbilisi, Moscow to mull co-op in transport sphere
Russian State Secretary, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Georgian prime minister’s special representative for relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze will discuss the issues of cooperation between the two counties in transport sphere, Sputnik reported.
The announcement about the discussions was made by Karasin himself.
The diplomat said the results of normalization of Georgian-Russian relations are obvious for everyone.
“Bilateral trade between the two countries has increased by 1.5 times over two years and reached $850 million,” said Karasin. “Georgia’s export to Russia has increased more than fivefold as a result of lifting the restrictions on supply of wine and agricultural products.”
Furthermore, he said that the two countries have resumed cooperation in the international road transport sphere.
“Regular air service has been restored firstly between Moscow and Tbilisi and then on other routes, including St. Petersburg, Samara, Yekaterinburg and accordingly, to Georgian Batumi and Kutaisi,” said Karasin.
“We will continue to discuss all the mentioned issues in Prague on July 15,” he said. “Participation of experts in the sphere of transport will be the new element which will allow to more deeply discussing the prospects for cooperation in this sphere.”
Currently, the dialogue between Russia and Georgia is held within the Geneva talks and regular meetings between Abashidze and Karasin in Prague.
The format of the meetings doesn’t envisage political issues. These meetings are focused on the issues of resuming the trade, transport, cultural and humanitarian cooperation.
The relations between Georgia and Russia reached a critical point when Georgian troops launched several military operations to retake the breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions on August 8, 2008. At which point the Russian armed forces entered the regions to stop all military attacks by Georgian troops. After four days of intense fighting, Georgian forces were expelled from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Both sides agreed to a ceasefire on August 12. Russia is currently dominating the collective peacekeeping missions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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