Georgia Welcomes New American Ambassador

On September 21st the new Ambassador for the USA to Georgia, Mr Ian C. Kelly, with his wife Francesca, held an elegant closed cocktail party at the American Embassy to introduce himself and his Embassy staff.

“I am really humbled to be the new Ambassador here,” Ambassador Kelly said in his welcoming speech. And honoured that so many ministers and distinguished representatives of the Georgian government and civil society are here tonight. It is a distinct honour to have the President of Georgian and Mrs Margvelashvili here. I was amazed at how quickly I was received by the President- allowing me to get right down to work. Because it is very important work that we are doing here and that all of you are doing to make Georgia a truly sovereign, independent and modern country.”

“Some 20 years ago Georgia made the sovereign choice to be independent and to integrate with the European Union and its institutions. My priority and that of our mission here is to support Georgia’s choice. I pledge to devote all my energies in my time here to supporting Georgia on this very important path. I look forward to a very productive time- and hopefully have some fun, too.”

Later in the evening, Georgia Today got to meet the Ambassador personally to ask him his impressions of Georgia so far.

“Actually, this is not my first time here,” Ambassador Kelly said. “I first came in 1976 as student studying Russian in the region and came down to visit for four days. I was back in 1995 with the foreign service for another four days when Georgia was in very bad shape, and again in 2012 as the OSCE Ambassador. That’s when I said to myself: ‘I wanna come here.’ It is my wife Francesca’s first time, and I told her she would love it. She’s a professional musician, involved in college counselling, helping students filling in their college applications, so she’ll be volunteering in that field here.”

Georgia Today would like to extend Ambassador Kelly and his wife Francesca a warm welcome to Georgia and wishes them a pleasant time settling in to their new home.

Katie Ruth Davies

24 September 2015 21:24