PARIS (euronews) – Georgia’s president Salome Zurabishvili says she wants her country to move closer to Europe amidst a spat with Russia over the disputed province of Abkhazia.

In an interview with Euronews’s Anelise Borges in Tbilisi, Zurabishvili said her country and Russia have had no diplomatic relations since 2008, and that any future relationship with Russia would ‘have to be based on mutual respect’.

An EU enthusiast, Zurabishvili appears to be ready to join the European Union, although Georgia is not currently a candidate country. Nevertheless, she said she would like to see the country move closer to Brussels.