MOSCOW. Dec 10 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is not on the list of Georgia's military partners because of the mutual mistrust in relations, Georgian Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze said in an interview published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on Friday.
"If Russia continues fighting separatism on its own territory and simultaneously encouraging separatism in Georgia, clearly there can be no friendship between us," Baramidze said.
The Georgian leadership is working to bring the countries' positions closer, to build a real friendship with Russia, he said.
"By the way, I invited Sergei Ivanov (Russian defense minister - Interfax-AVN) to Georgia," Baramidze said, adding that he prefers to speak with Ivanov directly, rather than at the CIS Defense Ministers Council.
He called council meetings useless, stressing that "at the meetings, everything is done the way my colleague Sergei Ivanov decides."
According to Baramidze, the Georgian army reform is progressing at a high pace, and the Georgian Armed Forces may reach NATO standards within three or four years. He stressed that army reinforcement does not mean that Georgia is getting ready to solve problems in former autonomous regions by force.
"We do not think that possibilities to settle the Abkhaz and South Ossetian conflicts peacefully are exhausted and that the things might go as far as using force," the minister said.