«We continue building the strong friendship house between Armenia and Georgia, and my today’s visit confirms it,» stated Georgian FM Gela Bezhuashvili during a joint news conference with his Armenian counterpart Vartan Oskanian in Yerevan today. He specifically noted the need to strengthen cooperation between Armenia and Georgia in Euro integration. In his words, «we should pass that way jointly.» The Georgian Minister noted tourism energy and trade among important components of cooperation. «The most important is to secure direct dialogue at the level of business circles,» Bezhuashvili said. He also reported that Georgia besides improvement of infrastructure at the Black Sea coast, also develops mountain skier resorts. When commenting on the question why Azerbaijan is considered a strategic partner of Georgia, while Armenia – a pragmatic one, the Georgian FM said, «these are issues of security strategy and Georgia has 3 strategic partners in respect of security: US, Ukraine and Turkey, however, this does not mean we should not build strategic relations with Armenia.»
Speaking of the development program of the Georgian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti mostly populated by Armenians, adopted past year, the Georgian FM said the program term is 3 years and its budget is $130 million that will be spent on repair and building of roads, improvement of infrastructures, creation of workplaces. «Means will also be allocated for development of small and medium scale business,» he added. When answering a question on building of Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway, Bezhuashvili said the construction works have not started yet, the project has reached the stage of economic computations. «However, we never worked out strategic projects to isolate our neighbors,» he said.
When commenting on the question whether Georgia may receive gas from Iran through Armenia after Russia increased gas tariffs, the Georgian FM remarked «it is not technically possible yet.» However, he did not rule out the opportunity for the issue to be discussed when the gas pipeline becomes fully operative.
