“We don't have time to sit and wait for Russia to occupy Eastern Europe,” Georgia's integration minister tells CNBC

"We don't have time to sit and wait for Russia to occupy Eastern Europe country by country,” says Georgia’s State Minister on Euro-Atlantic Integration Alexi Petriashvili.

In an interview American media CNBC yesterday, the Georgian representative spoke about the role Russia was playing in the current situation in Ukraine and Georgia’s foreign policy, which envisaged the country to move closer to Europe.

"Georgia and Ukraine are European states which freely express their European choice and their will to join in the European community and nobody has an exclusive right to challenge them on their choice,” Petriashvili said.

He said any decision made by NATO at the Wales Summit would give "a very strong message” to the Georgian community and the world that it supported Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, which Petriashvili said had been a feature of Georgia’s foreign policy for many years.

"Nothing is going to delay us from these priorities,” he said.

The State Minister said the Georgian Government also wanted to normalise its relationship with its northern neighbour Russia.

After his CNBC interview, Petriashvili spoke to journalist about the Ukrainian crisis and Russia’s role in the ongoing disaster, and reiterated Georgia’s full support of the Ukrainian people and the government.

"We condemn the annexation of Ukrainian territories, which is a direct intervention and open aggression … by the Russian Federation. It is unacceptable for the democratic world in the 21^st Century,” Petriashvili said.

Meanwhile, a Georgian delegation led by President Giorgi Margvelashvili is attending the NATO Summit in Wales and are due to hold various high level meetings with leaders of European and American states.