French Ambassador Diego Colas on COVID-19 & Beyond

In the second interview from GT LIVE INTERVIEWS’ “AMBASSADORS GO LIVE,” series, GEORGIA TODAY’s Editor-in-Chief Katie Ruth Davies met French Ambassador to Georgia Diego Colas.

This week, French financial newspaper Les Echos published an article titled "Georgia in the EU: and why not?" written by economist Sébastien Cochard, which noted that “what is happening in Georgia concerns us and we should be interested in it.” Earlier last week, the French edition L’opinion suggested in an article titled 'The European Union: Is Size Decisive?' that “Georgia offers a much more favorable environment for investors and entrepreneurs than most EU countries."

Before we spoke to Ambassador Colas, we looked at the latest COVID-19 statistics from his home country France, which is 643,801 km² and has a population of 66.99 million.

France is the 6th on the Worldometer coronavirus list after the US, Spain, Italy, the UK and Russia, with 174,191 total cases. 25,809 French citizens have died, and 53,972 have recovered. There are 94,410 active cases, 3,147 (4%) of whom are critical.

What steps have your country’s government and healthcare system taken to fight COVID-19, and how effective do you think that fight has been?

One of the first measures when the virus started accelerating in Europe and globally was to make sure that people stayed or returned home. It was a particular challenge for the Foreign Service because we had about 180,000 French people abroad trying to return home. From Georgia, flights heading towards Western Europe were always available, so it was not too difficult to do. But in the rest of the world, there were some countries where it was quite a challenge.

When it comes to the health response, I think the response that we put in place in France was inspired by the same principles as in Georgia, which was very much a scientific process. A board of scientists advised the President, PM and Government what measures to take. This implied a lot of testing at the beginning in order to identify the virus, its location; to introduce confinement or close schools, things like that. And then at the mature stage, when the virus spread throughout France, a general confinement measure was put in place to make sure the virus did not develop too quickly and we had time to increase the hospital response capabilities.

At the beginning of the pandemic, we had about 4000 beds for corona cases, which we increased to 8000, as the number of infected increased. But we always managed to keep on top of the situation. At the peak there were about 8000 beds ready and 7000 people in care. The strategy worked to slow down the virus so that we were able to deal with all the cases as they came. It was quite a challenge for the hospitals. But the strategy as a whole was a success and I want to pay homage to those doctors and nurses who made it happen.

If you could go back in time, what would you do/recommend be done differently?

It's a good question and one I think people will have to ask a lot over the coming weeks and months as we assess the response. We don't have the luxury of being able to go back in time. And we have to acknowledge that this is a virus which didn't behave the way many viruses behave, so there were a lot of surprises for the doctors and scientists, which meant we had to adjust our measures more than once.

The legitimate debate is, was there a need for generalized confinement? Is it a measure that had to be taken, despite the obvious cost to the economy? Was it too much? I think with hindsight, it is pretty clear that it was right, when we see the rise in the mortality rate, when we see the pressure at hospitals to deal with all the cases.

Many publications, both in the US and Europe, have over the past month praised Georgia’s handling of the pandemic. From what you’ve read or heard, what’s your take on that?

I very much agree with these publications. I think the government and society at large did a very good job. The government has shown itself to be competent and transparent, and society proved to be resilient, united, not losing that critical spirit which is a factor of success, but being disciplined and showing a very good image of Georgia to the world.

There's been some controversy recently about the Lugar Lab. So I want to be on the record as among those who support the Lugar Lab. I think it has been a very key factor in the success of the Georgian response. I also want to praise the transparency, because Georgia was very much in a transparent mode and very open with the numbers.

We're not at the end of the story yet, but so far, I have the impression that things have been handled in a transparent and competent manner. And Georgia has proven to be a very reliable partner to the West, being itself a very Western country in its way of doing things.

What is France doing to support its citizens, especially those who lost their jobs due to the pandemic?

We've taken measures to support people who are at home and not at work because either their companies have stopped working or because they themselves cannot get to work.

We have a system in place where more than 80% of the salaries are being paid by the government. Of course, this temporary unemployment scheme can’t work forever, but for the short term of the containment measures, it's an effective tool so people don’t lose their incomes. Then the solution will be a strong recovery.

For that, we're taking various measures to support companies, among them tax breaks, bank guarantees and solidarity funds. The point of this approach is to make sure that the productive capital is not destroyed, so that when the recovery happens, there are companies there who will benefit from it and therefore sustain a vigorous recovery. These are the general short-term and medium-term measures to try to weather the economic crisis.

What about bringing society back to a normal routine?

Schools will start opening in France starting May 11, first with elementary schools, followed a week later by middle schools. At the end of May, we will assess whether the high schools will open again.

Universities will start again in September. What has not been completely organized yet is the end of year exams. For the Baccalaureate, we will rely more on testing throughout the year.

Notwithstanding this significant effort of the teachers, this [online learning] is a system that cannot go on, especially in households where the parents don’t speak French and so cannot help their children study. Another reason for the desire to open schools soon is to support children from vulnerable families.

May 11 is a day we have quite a lot restarting: younger children at schools, some shops, some public transport, we will have more children voluntarily going back to school after a few weeks, then more businesses and restaurants will kick in, so it is a gradual process. Based on the epidemiological situation, we will assess whether to slow down the opening, or to go into confinement again.

Where is France in terms of developing a vaccine? What is the expected outcome? Are there any plans to support countries that don't have their own vaccine research going on at this time?

We have research going on in France. We do not have a vaccine yet, but we have results. We're also very keen to make sure that it's not just some countries or people developing a vaccine that only benefits themselves. We really want to make sure that for all the studies, we put the resources of the world together to develop vaccines. That’s why on May 4, we launched an EU-organized program of cooperation between states and international organizations, such as WHO, as well as partner foundations, in order to pool our resources.

How do you see your country in 6 months or 1 years’ time? And indeed the world? How can the economy recover?

We don't really know whether the virus will disappear or whether there will be a second wave. But one of the factors of success will be whether we are able to keep the productive capital operating.

In the longer run, most countries will think a little bit differently than they did before, in particular when it comes to what sort of productive capacities they have on their own territories, what they can produce in their own country. Of course, we don't want to plunge into a world of autarchy or a world of protectionism because this is guaranteed to fail.

One strategically important sector is agriculture, an area Georgia has great potential in. 1950s France was in a similar situation, where much needed to be rebuilt. We developed plenty of tools, especially in agriculture, and we're very keen to share this expertise with Georgia.

Reconstruction can be a very exciting thing if it is done quickly and vigorously and making sure we protect the vulnerable.

And in Georgia’s case, how long do you think it might take for a full recovery? Concerning the tourism sector, for example.

I think Georgia has done the right thing in the past 20 years, across society, through its chosen western path of development, and has broadly benefited from it. I think it's been a great success.

Today, though, Georgia is counting a lot on international tourism, on its Western investments. International tourism is probably not the first thing to expect to quickly return at the end of confinement. But that doesn't mean we should despair. Quite the opposite. Western donors and Western countries have reaffirmed their commitment to stand by Georgia. France and other countries have signed a letter, committing us to a very strong level of support to the [Georgian] government, so there will be quite a lot of support coming on our side. Among the donors is, obviously, the European Union, which has developed three assistance packages. But it’s not only about money, it is also about political support and expertise.

One aspect that needs careful focus [during the recovery] is the vulnerable. We really need to make sure that as we press for economic recovery, we don't leave them behind, first because a crisis like this is harder on the vulnerable, but also because at a moment like this, the country needs all its forces. Take women, who tend to have a double burden both in Georgian and French societies: it's very often women working on the frontline in hospitals and supermarkets, and who also have families and homes to support. There's also the global issue of violence against women and children. The Georgian government has taken quite a lot of measures in this regard. It's important that all the vulnerable people in society are helped so that they can contribute to the [post-COVID] recovery.

What is your biggest take-away from this whole experience?

We live very frenetic lives, and this has forced us to stop. It's been somewhat brutal. You become a diplomat because you want to meet people and as Ambassador in Georgia, I've been lucky to meet a lot of people. But suddenly that stopped and there were fewer people around. Contact by phone and other means is not quite the same, and for that reason, it's been somewhat difficult to do. But it's an occasion to reflect on and rediscover the essential people in our lives. Now we have time to think about what is most important to us, what duty of care we have for others, both in our family and working lives. I would hope we don’t merely slip back into that frenetic lifestyle again, but take what we have reflected on during this time into account.

By Team GT