Georgian negotiator said Tbilisi was approaching the next round of Swiss-mediated Georgia-Russia talks on Moscow’s WTO entry terms later this week “constructively”.

“We hope to find a common ground with our Russian colleagues,” Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergi Kapanadze, said on October 4. “I can not say that I am extremely optimistic on this issue to be honest, but we still have one more round so it will be premature to speak before this round what will be the outcome.”

“We hope that if Russia really wants to join the World Trade Organization it will be able to make concessions on some of the most fundamental issues on which it has failed to concede so far,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Sergey Shuvalov, said Moscow was closer to joining WTO this year, including thanks to the U.S. efforts.

“We are trying to complete the deal by the end of December and, I am pleased to say, thanks to the leadership in the United States, we are closer to that goal,” Reuters reported quoting Shuvalov as saying at an annual US-Russia Business Council meeting in Chicago on October 4.

He said “a few minor things” remained to be solved and mentioned a “third party I don't want to discuss publicly,” apparently referring to Georgia.