Georgian Foreign Minister Meets UK’s Boris Johnson

“We are here to deepen and intensify the friendship between Georgia and UK in a number of directions,“Boris Johnson, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom said during his meeting with the Georgian Vice Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze. He said defense and security of Georgia as well as trade cooperation are of huge importance for the UK and the whole continent as well.

Janelidze and Johnson met in London on October 23, in the framework of the 4th plenary session of the Georgia-UK bilateral political dialogue titled Wardrop Strategic Dialogue.

“We regard the Euro-Atlantic vocation of Georgia as being one of the key ambitions of our foreign policy,” the UK’s Foreign Secretary stated during the meeting.

Boris Johnson also stated that he would visit Georgia at the earliest possible opportunity.

“I’m delighted to see that in the last years we've seen a 25 percent increase in the sale of Georgian wine to the United Kingdom and 25 percent increase of British tourists to Georgia through direct flights and obviously that’s an exchange we need to intensify”, Johnson said.

Janelidze underlined that Georgia looks forward to establishing a strong legal framework with the UK after Brexit including developing free trade and trade-economic cooperation.

“We are really very grateful for UK’s strong and unwavering support to our territorial integrity and sovereignty and to the Georgian Government’s peaceful approaches to peaceful resolution of the conflicts. We look forward to our deepened and strengthened partnership and co-operation and I will be honored and pleased to welcome you to Georgia very soon,” Georgian Foreign Minister addressed Johnson.

Meeting btw VPM, Foreign Minister of #Georgia @JanelidzeMkh & Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs @BorisJohnson #UK pic.twitter.com/4PwCPvkuK1

— MFA of Georgia (@MFAgovge) October 23, 2017

The Wardrop dialogue provides an opportunity to discuss continued co-operation on trade, defense, and mutual values, which underpin the strength of mutual ties between the UK and Georgia.

Wardrop Strategic Dialogue is named after Sir Oliver Wardrop, who was a strong champion of the first Republic of Georgia and the UK’s first Chief Commissioner to Georgia and South Caucasus from 1919 to 1921. Sir Oliver Wardrop is credited with having made a great contribution to the promotion of Georgian culture and literature.

 By Thea Morrison