The Georgian Foreign Affairs Ministry issued appeal reiterating its offer to hold regular negotiations with the Russian authorities. The Georgian governement invited Russian officials to Tbilisi on Jun 10-11 so that the two sides may discuss various military issues, including the withdrawal of the Russian military bases from Georgia.
Russia agreed to pull out its troops and armaments from both of the Batumi and Akhalkalaki military bases, during the OSCE Istanbul summit in 1999.
?The Georgian side expresses hopes that in the nearest future it will receive an answer in regards to this proposal,? reads a May 31 statement released by the Georgian Foreign Ministry?s statement.
Georgia still insists on the withdrawal of Russian bases within three years, while Russia stands firm on its desire for eight years to complete this withdrawal.
The Georgian Foreign Minister, Salome Zourabichvili, came up with a new initiative recently that proposed Georgia and Russia set up a joint anti-terrorist center in Georgia in exchange for Russia pulling out its military bases in the Republic.
?I think an innovative, even revolutionary approach is needed in order to solve this problem in the shortest period of time,? Salome Zourabichvili said in June 4 interview with the Russian news agency, Itar-Tass .
She added that the proposal over the setting up of a joint anti-terrorism center would be precisely this kind of ?innovative? approach.