Politico: Zurabishvili Aims to Bring Country Closer to EU & NATO with Help from Her Past

In her interview with POLITICO at the Paris Hotel at the end of a three-day visit to France last week, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili’s highlighted France’s participation in the European Union Monitoring Mission on Georgia’s border with Russia, and France’s role in raising the issue of Georgia with strategic partners.

“Nobody can think that anything is going to be effective with Putin,” Zurabishvili told the renowned media company, adding that she aims to bring Georgia country closer to the EU and NATO with help from her past.

“There are many things that France is now doing which would not have been possible in previous years,” she said. “[Macron] was very clear about … France’s supporting Georgia in any way it can,” she said.

The article notes that Zurabishvili met President Emmanuel Macron last Tuesday at the Elysée Palace, on her first bilateral foreign trip as head of state. “The visit was also something of a return home. Although she was elected president of the land of her ancestors in December, Zurabishvili was born in France and spent three decades working in its foreign service.”

“Our male colleagues would say Salome is the man they wished they were, a steel fist in a silk glove,” the author of the article cites the words of French diplomat Muriel Domenach.

Zurabishvili told POLITICO “she and Macron had agreed that discreetly mentioning Georgia in their talks with Russia was ‘a way to go forward’ — though with no guarantee of success.”

She also said she is banking on France to be her foremost ally not just because of her long affiliation with the country. “The only country that is very determined to go down the road with continuing the European project is France, so we have to cling to France,” she said.

The first female President of Georgia indicated she was content for France to raise Georgia's disputes with Moscow behind the scenes.

“What we need is more engagement [on Georgia] from our partners in their discussions with Russia … but that will not necessarily happen in the public forum,” she said.

The article also reads that Macron declared support for Zurabishvili's vision and announced a “new page” in Franco-Georgian ties.

“France continues to welcome you as one of our own,” Macron told Zurabishvili at their joint press conference in Paris.

By Thea Morrison

Image source: Politico