TBILISI. March 11 (Interfax-AVN) - A third leg of Georgian- Russian talks on a new Friendship, Good-Neighborly Relations, Cooperation and Mutual Security Treaty, the so-called framework treaty, will be held in early April, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said in a radio interview on Monday.
According to him, "the new treaty is being prepared to replace a document of 1994 which was never ratified by the State Duma lower house of Russian parliament." Shevardnadze said he was satisfied with a high pace of work on the new treaty.
The Georgian president added that he stands for "elaboration of a document based on principles of mutual equality, profit and taking into account the best friendship traditions of both nations."
The first leg took place in Tbilisi in December last year while the second in Moscow in mid-February this year. The Russian delegation was headed by Boris Pastukhov, chairman of the State Duma committee on the CIS affairs and ties with compatriots. The Georgian party was led by Foreign Minister Irakly Menagarishvili. Back then the latter said that the draft document "has been elaborated so thoroughly that there is not so much purely technical work and there are no reasons to delay the process."