German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will pay her first official visit to Georgia on March 23, the German Embassy in Georgia announced on Wednesday
TBILISI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2023) German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will pay her first official visit to Georgia on March 23, the German Embassy in Georgia announced on Wednesday.
During her two-day visit, Baerbock is scheduled to meet with Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili, as well as representatives of nongovernmental human rights organizations and the Georgian opposition.
The Primary agenda of the meetings is Germany's support for Georgia's rapprochement with the EU and NATO, and the implementation of reforms necessary for that. Baerbock is aiming to establish closer, direct ties between the two countries and to deepen the partnership for Georgia's European future, the embassy's statement said.
Georgia took its first decisive steps toward joining NATO in 2004, when a pro-Western president, now jailed Mikheil Saakashvili, came to power. However, nothing has come of the process since then. In March 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that not admitting Georgia to NATO was the right decision, and that it was not on the agenda.
In March 2022, Georgia also applied for the status of EU membership candidate on par with Ukraine and Moldova. At a top-level summit in June of that year, the European Council granted candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, but not to Georgia, saying that Tbilisi had yet to implement the recommended reforms, including strengthening its democratic institutions, maintaining fundamental rights and freedoms, tackling corruption, combating organized crime, and involving civil society in decision-making processes.
