The meeting of the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and the President of Russia Vladimer Putin was held in Russia's Presidential residence in Novo-Ogarevo. The meeting lasted 40 minutes. The Minister of Foreign Affairs David Bakradze, the Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze and the Chief of the Foreign Intelligence Gela Bezhuashvili attended this meeting from the Georgian side.

The statements were made about the restoration of air traffic between Georgia and Russia during the meeting. According to the statement made by Vladimer Putin the disagreement between the sides about air traffic is overcome. Also, according to Putin's statement, the sides reached the agreement that Georgian air companies will pay off the existing debts. During the conversation about the restoration of flights between Georgia and Russia, the President of Georgia said that it was not normal, not to have direct flights between Tbilisi and Moscow. The President of Georgia expressed his hopes about the results of negotiations between the two sides - progress will be made on returning Georgian products to the Russian market. "This issue is purely psychological, but it is very important for us from the political point of view" - stated the President of Georgia.

The President of the Russian Federation Vladimer Putin and the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili both hope that the relationships between Georgia and Russia will be improved.

The Heads of States announced it during the meeting.

"We have focused our attention on your statement, according to which, the Georgian government tends to develop the relations with Russia. We, in return, will try to respond in the same way" - stated Vladimer Putin in the beginning of the meeting.

The President of Georgia on his side stated: "We are committed to establish normal relationships, to overcome all the difficulties that we had in the past... I hope, we will be able to restore those generous tendencies that we had during my first term of presidency, and if we do not start from a clean paper, but we should be able to give new energy and inspiration to these relationships. We all tend to do it and we hope it will be so" - stated Mikheil Saakashvili.

Mikheil Saakashvili confessed that he is glad to come to Moscow to attend the Summit, where Vladimer Putin will hold his last meetings with CIS leaders in the rank of the President of Russia. "I didn't want to miss this chance" - stated the President of Georgia.

Mikheil Saakashvili once again invited Vladimer Putin to visit Tbilisi. He expressed his hope that Putin would come to Tbilisi in the rank of the Prime Minister.

Press Office
of the President of Georgia