Georgia’s aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the alliance’s military exercises held on the Georgian territory curb the development of Moscow-Tbilisi relations, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigoriy Karasin says
“Of course, there are remaining difficulties in the process of development of our relations with Georgia. The main of them is the pro-NATO agenda of Tbilisi, the Georgian authorities’ aspirations to be as close as possible to the Euro-Atlantic structures and large-scale military exercises held on the territory of this country”, Karasin, who is also the Russian ministry’s state secretary, said after his talks with the Georgian prime minister’s special representative for relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze, in Prague on Wednesday.
During the talks, Karasin also expressed concerns about the work of US military experts in Georgia’s Richard Lugar Laboratory, accused by Russia of running secret biological tests.
“As a result of the talks, the readiness to continue contacts has been reaffirmed. The next meeting [between Karasin and Abashidze] has been agreed for summer 2019”, the statement pointed out.