TBILISI, December 22 (RIA Novosti) – Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Monday that his country would become a strong state after it signed a framework agreement on a strategic partnership with the United States.
Georgian media reported that the agreement would be ready for signing by the end of the year and stipulate close political, economic and humanitarian ties, as well as cooperation in the security sphere.
“With the agreement signed Georgia will become stronger and will be able to travel the path to restoring its territorial integrity,” Saakashvili said.
He also said that by establishing a strategic partnership “with the biggest and strongest state in the world … relations will reach a new level of security not only in Georgia, but in the whole region.”
Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states on August 26 after a five-day war with Georgia, which launched an attack on South Ossetia to try and regain control of the region.
The two Georgian breakaway republics have had de facto independence since they broke away from Georgia in bloody post-Soviet conflicts in the early 1990s.
Georgia’s pro-Western government, which came to power on the back of a “rose” revolution in 2003, is determined to bring South Ossetia and Abkhazia back under its control.