TBILISI, June 6 (RIA Novosti) - A new inter-parliamentary group for Russian-Georgian cooperation and friendship will help establish contacts between border regions of the neighboring countries, a Russian parliamentarian said Tuesday.

The group's establishment comes against the backdrop of deteriorating relations between the two countries over the future of self-proclaimed republics on Georgian territory and the role of Russian peacekeepers there, as well as a ban on Georgian wine and water imports into Russia.

Akhmed Bilalov, deputy head of the State Duma committee for CIS affairs and cochairman of the new group, said Russian and Georgian border regions needed contacts as "their problems had many common geographical and climatic features."