Foreign office: Georgia won’t attend 3+3 format meeting in Tehran

The Georgian foreign office on Sunday said the country would not participate in a meeting of the so-called "3+3 format" taking place on Monday in Iran’s capital city of Tehran that would bring together officials from Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“Georgia does not participate in the mentioned meeting and has never participated”, the foreign office said.

Following the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a landlocked region in southwest Azerbaijan near the southeastern border of Armenia, in 2020 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put forward the idea of launching a six-nation platform that includes the cooperation of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Iran in order to establish stability and peace in the region.

The official position of the Georgian authorities is that the country will not participate in the format due to the Russian factor.

Georgia and Russia suspended their diplomatic ties following the Russia-Georgia war in 2008. However, two countries have continued trade and economic discussions since 2013 under the Georgian Dream government with Georgian-Russian informal dialogue, which involves Zurab Abashidze, the Georgian Prime Minister’s Special Representative for relations with Russia and Gregory Karasin, the former Russian Deputy Foreign Minister.