Georgia calls in Ukraine envoy over ex-president's role in Kiev

Georgia has called Ukraine's ambassador to a meeting to discuss Kiev's "surprising" appointment of former President Mikheil Saakashvili as an adviser, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Saakashvili is on Georgia's wanted list over charges of exceeding his authority but has left the South Caucasus country. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko named him as the head of an advisory council last week.

Foreign Ministry spokesman David Kereselidze said Ambassador Vasyl Tsybenko had been invited to a meeting later this week. Although he described the appointment of Saakashvili as surprising for Tbilisi, Kereselidze told a news conference: "Ukraine is our strategic partner ... nothing will obstruct this partnership and good neighbourly relations."

Georgia has watched Ukraine with alarm since Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula last year and some officials in Tbilisi have portrayed the conflict in Ukraine as an extension of Georgia's brief war with Russia in 2008.

But relations between the ruling Georgian Dream party and Saakashvili are severely strained, and some officials had warned before his appointment that naming wanted people to official positions in Ukraine could damage relations.

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