Georgia moves towards Europe
By Tea Mariamidze
Monday, July 14
Georgia's special envoy to Russia Zurab Abashidze commented for journalists after a meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gregory Karasin in Prague several days ago.
According to Abashidze, the focus of the meeting was Georgia’s signing of the Association Agreement with the EU. Abashidze claims that his Russian colleges received all the answers to their questions.
“They proposed to restore regular flights between Moscow and Tbilisi from September 15. We also discussed other important issues and answered comprehensively our Russian colleagues’ questions regarding the Association Agreement,” Abashidze said.
Georgian Minister of Defense Irakli Alasania also made a comment after the conference saying "Europe and Georgia are both thinking about the implementation of the Association Agreement. Georgian society has made this choice and no one can derail us. Now, the main thing is that we all must try to fulfill the agreement," he said.
Speaker of Parliament Davit Usupashvili also made a statement about the relationship between Europe and Georgia. According to him, Europe is interested in Georgian culture and traditions.
“Now we have to manage to establish European standards in our country, but at the same time we should preserve our culture and traditions,” Usupashvili stated.
The Ambassador of EU in Georgia Philip Dimitrov is very positive about the Association Agreement. He said that Georgia would receive benefits soon.
“All the benefits from the EU will have rapid effects soon, this is an important step, because Georgia will become a member of the European market shortly,” the ambassador admitted.
