Georgia and Ukraine are discussing the expediency of further
membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),
Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said in capital Tbilisi
on Sunday.
"The representatives of Georgia and Ukraine discussed benefits
and disadvantages of the CIS membership. We should thoroughly weigh
up all cons and pros," Bezhuashvili was quoted by the Itar-Tass
news agency as saying, after the visit by Ukrainian experts on
Saturday.
"Georgia will hold consultations about the CIS future with
friendly CIS member countries," Georgian President Mikhail
Saakashvili said on Sunday.
"Georgia is ready to make important decisions, but we do not
want these decisions to be unilateral," he said. "We want
coordinated and well considered actions, including the ones
concerning the CIS future."
Saakashvili instructed on Tuesday the national government "to
analyze the economic expediency of Georgia's further membership in
the CIS and present the analysis within two months."
Meanwhile, the Russian government is considering the annulment
of CIS preferences for Georgia and Ukraine in case of their
secession from the organization, a governmental representative said
on Sunday on the condition of anonymity.
He said that Russia would review many agreements signed with
Georgia and Ukraine within the CIS.
The CIS was set up in 1991, the time the Soviet Union was
formally pronounced dead, in an effort to preserve a basic
framework for routine organizational matters in relations developed
over 70 years between Soviet republics. It includes all ex-Soviet
republics except Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which are now in
the European Union and NATO.
(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2006)
