Georgia-Russia envoys confirm trade talks

Next round of Georgia-Russian dialogue to be held in July.
Agenda.ge, 24 Jun 2014 - 15:44, Tbilisi,Georgia

Georgia’s special envoy Zurab Abashidze and Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin spoke on the phone and agreed to discuss trade relations in the near future.

The officials spoke yesterday and discussed their future meeting, which will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, in the first half of July. According to Abashidze, the meeting will take place once Georgia signs the Association Agreement (AA) with the European Union (EU).

"We have our topics to discuss. These are mainly trade-economic relations, transport issues, humanitarian and other practical issues,” Abashidze said.

The conversation also focused on the meeting of Georgian and Russian experts in Prague, which will be held several days before Abashidze and Karasin meet.

"The experts will discuss trade and economic issues. They will analyze the work that has been done throughout the last year and a half after dialogue with Russia began, and will talk about future prospects,” he said.

Georgia’s special envoy also noted that considering his meeting with Karasin will be held after Georgia signs the AA, which is due to take place on June 27, the sides would also talk about this topic at their meeting.

"We do not consider the AA in a context that it contradicts our trade relations with Russia or other neighbouring countries. I also want to note that our European colleagues unanimously support the expert meeting,” he said.

"It is interesting how Russia looks on the AA, how it thinks to continue trade-economic relations. Perhaps we can’t avoid going through these issues. However, it is a narrower topic and will be discussed in more details and depth at the expert meeting,” Abashidze added.