Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili argued on Wednesday that joining NATO could improve his country's troubled relations with Russia. Moscow has voiced strong opposition to NATO's overtures for closer ties with former Soviet republics. Georgia, for its part, accuses Russian peacekeeping forces in two breakaway regions -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- of siding with separatists. "We will be on better terms with Russia when we join NATO," Saakashvili said at a news conference after meeting with President Lech Kaczynski of Poland, a formerly communist country that joined the alliance in 1999. "Russia has very good relations with most NATO members, like France, Germany," Saakashvili said. "We want good relations with Russia." He conceded that his country will "need years" to improve ties with Moscow.