Lukashenko to initiate Georgia's return to CIS

13:52, 04.10.2012 1 min read

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko deems possible Georgia's return to the CIS and says he will make that initiative.

"I think the CIS summit of next year will take place in Minsk. That would be my area: if Minsk is chosen as the summit venue I will initiate the return of Georgia to the Commonwealth of Independent States," he told the Mir television and radio broadcaster.

"That would not be burdensome for Georgian politicians," Lukashenko said. "I am confident that if the Saakashvili party had won [the Monday parliamentary election], Mikheil Saakashvili would have returned to the CIS next year."

"That is what Belarus will be working on. We must not lose Georgia," the president said.

President Saakashvili declared Georgia's secession from the CIS immediately after the war of August 2008. The parliament backed up the initiative, and the Georgian Foreign Ministry sent the secession note to the CIS Executive Committee on August 18, 2008. Pursuant to the CIS Charter, the secession process ended 12 months later, on August 18, 2009.