Georgia in favor of normalizing relations with Russia

MADRID, November 18 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia is ready to normalize relations with Russia, but is concerned that there could be an escalation in tensions in the region, a Georgian deputy prime minister told Spain's EFE agency on Tuesday.

Georgy Baramidze, who is also the European integration minister, made the comments while attending the 54th annual session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Valencia, eastern Spain.

President Mikheil Saakashvili is expected to address the assembly later today.

The deputy premier said "it demands tense combined work with Europe to solve the conflict." He said there remained the danger of "new aggression," but added that Georgia would like to build relations with Russia "on the principles of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity."

In early August, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia after Georgian forces attacked its breakaway region of South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control. On August 26, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist Georgian republic, as independent states.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s amid armed conflicts that claimed thousands of lives.