Georgia Is Not Going Anywhere Any More

Georgia is not going to quit the Community of Independent States (CIS) after all, says premier of that Trans-Caucasian republic Zurab Nogaideli. As he says, Georgia will stay in the CIS. That question is in the competence of the government, said Z. Nogaideli, speaking live to a Moscow radio station.

"We are not going from the CIS anywhere, The Community has not exhausted itself, and the question of any country quitting it, and moreover of its dissolution, is not on the agenda", said, in particular, the Georgian premier. He admitted that the question of quitting the CIS was in fact raised in that country's parliament, but, as he said, the subsequent commentary was exaggerated.

As has been reported earlier, November 22, 2005, the Georgian parliament voted in favor of initiating consultations with Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili concerning Georgia's walking out of the CIS. Speaker of the Georgian parliament Nino Burjanadze, by and large, supported the parliamentarians' initiative, but noted that Georgia's quitting the CIS would create additional political and economic problems for the country.

In return the deputies of the Russian State Duma decided to consider the question of terminating Russian-Georgian agreements. However, this would be done only in case of Georgia's quitting the CIS. Last Thursday the parliamentarians supported the appropriate protocol commission of a number of the Duma committees.

As "United Russia" deputy Sergei Antufiev said, Russia and Georgia had signed 91 agreements in various fields, of which 35 are subject to ratification. Among these documents are agreements on trade end economic cooperation, on provision of pensions, on commercial shipping, and others.