Georgia continues its pragmatic policy with Russia

As the candidate for the post of Prime Minister of Georgia, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, has declared, the pragmatic cooperation policy with Russia will continue.

According to him, establishing trade relations with Russia plays an important role in terms of improving Georgia-Russia relationships.

“Our policy of pragmatic cooperation with Russia will continue. From our point of view, we have made good progress in this respect as the external risks have reduced. Our present trade relations also play a significant role. The Geneva format still remains the main issue but the Abashidze-Karasin (meetings between the Georgian and Russian envoys on trade-economic relations, a format which was initiated by Georgia’s ex-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili) format is also important,” Giorgi Kvirikashvili said.

The opinion and attitude has never been shared by the parliamentary opposition, which claims that Russia will never change its aggressive attitudes towards neighboring countries.

They also claim that the current Government’s policy with Russia will decrease international support to Georgia as they - the partners - might think that Georgia deals with Russia alone without the need of the international support.

Of course, Georgia must remain cautious with Russia, and this should result that the country will not be dependent on Russia in any way.

Georgia must especially not rely on Russia in the economic sphere, as this will be definitely used by Russia for its own interests.

We must not be cautious on Russia politically, as it has been revealed many times that the country is not a reliable partner.

Perhaps the only outcome is that the country will become part of internally important projects and through this way its international image will be improved.

Georgia should have relations with Russia, as the absence of relations never helps problems to be solved.

It will never help to deliberately and repeatedly offend aggressors, especially when the aggressor is significantly more powerful.