Georgian Foreign Minister’s visit over

The official visit of the Georgian Foreign Minister Irakliy Menagarishvili to Azerbaijan completed Wednesday. Before leaving for Georgia, he told a news briefing at the airport that all his meetings in Baku achieved complete mutual understanding on all issues discussed.

He said during a meeting at the Cabinet of Ministers he had focused on prospects of cooperation in the area of energy. He added that Tbilisi is counting very much on Azerbaijan’s assistance in resolving the country’s acute energy crisis.

In a meeting with President Aliyev, the Georgian minister was assured that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project is being successfully implemented and that several more companies have voiced an interest in joining it. The minister added that the parties had also emphasized the importance of conducting a regular GUUAM summit as soon as possible.

At the Foreign Ministry and the Milli Mejlis, the minister’s idea of establishing cooperation between GUUAM parliamentary committees on foreign relations received lukewarm welcome, he said.

Commenting on the opinion of some political analysts on Russia’s having intensified pressure on Georgia in the wake of Putin’s visit to Baku, Mr. Menagarishvili said bilateral relations with Moscow were experiencing a difficult period, which, however, has nothing to do with Putin’s visit to Azerbaijan.

“Azerbaijan and Georgia have always been strategic partners and intend to keep implementing joint plans in the future”, he stated.

Asked about the upcoming transfer of Georgia’s education system to the Georgian language, he said this was not true. “Tbilisi understands that all citizens of the country regardless of their nationality must be provided with the right of preserving their language and culture. All Azeri schools are and will be functioning”, he vowed. The minister added that the parties had also agreed to resolve the problems of Georgia’s ethnic Azeris.*