The Georgian parliament has put on the agenda of the November 10 plenary sitting a debate on the expediency of Georgia’s staying in the Commonwealth of Independent States, parliament leader Nino Burdzhanadze said on Tuesday, according to Itar-Tass.
She said that the opposition faction Democratic Front had tabled the issue.
Meanwhile, members of the ruling party United National Movement (UNM), who have a majority in the parliament, believe that “there is no need to force the process of Georgia’s leaving the CIS”.
“A moment should be chosen for leaving the CIS when this does not do harm to Georgia’s interests,” one of UNM leaders, the parliament’s vice speaker Mikhail Machavariani said.
“If we make the decision on Georgia’s leaving the CIS at present, this can create certain problems for Georgia, in particular the price of products imported from Ukraine and a number of other countries can increase by 12 percent, and for this reason we don’t want to create additional problems for the country,” Machavariani said.
Members of other opposition factions supported the proposal of breaking with the CIS, with the reasoning that staying in it “is incompatible with Georgia’s course for joining NATO”.
Besides, “staying in the CIS does not give Georgia anything”.
The Democratic Front had repeatedly raised this issue over the par weeks after a strain arose in the Georgian-Russian relations.
