Georgia's Foreign Minister Meets Counterparts during Visit in NY
Georgia’s Vice-Premier and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mikheil Janelidze, held several high-rank meetings with his counterparts within the framework of the United Nations (UN) ‘High-Level Meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace’ in New York.
At the meeting with his Swedish counterpart, Margot Wallström, the ministers discussed increasing the dynamics of cooperation between the two countries in different spheres, particularly the cooperation between law enforcement agencies to eradicate issues of violations of EU-Georgia visa-liberalization rules.
The Swedish Foreign Minister positively assessed the decision to send a Georgian police attaché to Sweden.
The ministers also emphasized the importance of using visa-free and free trade regimes for developing trade and business contacts between the countries.
Discussions also focused on the recent developments in Georgia's occupied regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, including human rights violations and frequent imprisonment of Georgian citizens. Mikheil Janelidze thanked the Swedish side for supporting Georgia.
He also met Côte d'Ivoire Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcel Amon Tahon.
The two emphasized cooperation between Georgia and Côte d'Ivoire within the framework of international organizations. Special attention was paid to cooperation within the framework of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
Janelidze introduced his counterpart to Georgia's priorities during the Chairmanship of the Open Government Partnership.
Tahon in turn expressed interest in sharing the successful experiences of Georgia in fields such as civil service, good governance, education and healthcare.
At the meeting between the Georgian and Moldavian Foreign Ministers, Janelidze and Tudor Ulianovschi discussed Georgia-Moldova cooperation, as well as Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration process.
The importance of exchanging bilateral high-level visits was also noted. The Georgian Foreign Minister invited his Moldavian counterpart to Georgia.
The UN high-level meeting was held on 24-25 April at the UN Headquarters, gathering contributions from top speakers with experience in peacebuilding and sustaining peace.
While delivering his speech there, the Georgian FM focused on the government peace initiative aimed at improving the lives of those living in Georgia’s two Russian-backed breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
He introduced the meeting participants to the grave human rights and living conditions of the people at these regions, noting that the missions of the UN and other international organizations are not admitted to these regions to monitor the situation there.
Georgian minister added that Russia does not fulfill the obligations it agreed to in the 2008 ceasefire agreement which obliges the Russian Federation to withdraw its forces from the occupied regions.
He underlined that the Government of Georgia supports the peaceful resolution of the conflict and thanked the UN member states for assisting Georgia in this process.
In his speech, Janelidze also spoke about the joint efforts and responsibility of the international community in the process of securing and maintaining world peace.
By Thea Morrison