Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, Elmar Mamedyarov, will pay an official visit to Georgia on October 14-15, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

“Priority directions of further development of existing strategic relations between the two states” will be discussed during his meetings with President Saakashvili and his Georgian counterpart Grigol Vashadze, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.

Georgian ambassador’s post in Baku remains vacant since January, 2010 and information about the reasons remains scarce.

Ivane Noniashvili, who was head of the President’s press office, was approved on the ambassadorial post in November, 2009. He, however, surprisingly filed for resignation in January, 2010 for the reasons, which have never been made public.

In April, 2010 the Georgian Parliament approved on the ambassadorial post a ruling party lawmaker Irakli Kavtaradze, a deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee for foreign relations. He, however, has not taken the post; it was reported in the Georgian and Azerbaijani press that Baku refused to accept the Georgian ambassador-designate.

When asked about it, Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze downplayed the issue and said in an interview with the Azeri-Press Agency (APA) in early September that there “is no need to look for something” in this matter, “everything is OK”. (Audio file of that portion of the interview available here) He also said, that the Georgian Parliament itself did not want MP Kavtaradze to quit the legislative body; but Vashadze also said in the same interview that Kavtaradze would “most likely get some other job.”