In her words, the Georgian side "looks at Sergei Lavrov's official visit calmly, openly and positively." Sergei Lavrov will arrive in Tbilisi on the evening of February 17.
"I cannot say that we expect positive results from the forthcoming visit; it is hard to say anything against the present backdrop," Salome Zurabishvili noted.
She said that "the Georgian side prepared practical proposals for Sergei Lavrov and, should they be approved, the results could be expected within the next three months. She did not rule out that "the first steps towards normalizing Russian-Georgian relations could be made in this period."
Salome Zurabishvili stressed that "if Russia and Georgia fail to take steps towards normalizing their relations in the near future, it will be of no use to talk about a framework agreement or anything else."
According to Zurabishvili , "the Georgian leadership has no intention to deploy foreign states' military bases on its territory. She pointed out that representatives of the US Administration said repeatedly that the United States had no plans to deploy US military bases in Georgia.
At the same time, Salome Zurabishvili underlined that "the issue of Georgia's refusal to deploy foreign military bases on its territory cannot be a subject of the Russian-Georgian framework agreement (Moscow still maintains two military bases in Georgia, in Adzharia and Akhalkalaki near the border with Armenia)."
The Georgian foreign minister pointed out "there is no talk of any concessions to Russia on the issue of influence in the region." To quote her, "such a country as Russia will always have influence in the region However, it is important [to understand] in what form and at what level Russia will exercise this influence."
Salome Zurabishvili expressed the Georgian side's readiness to discuss all pressing issues in Russian-Georgian relations. "We have no border problems, no visa regime problems, or problems related to the agreement [between our two countries]. Our problem is that we do not know what Russia really wants," Georgia's foreign minister said in conclusion.
