UK-Georgia dialogue will deepen bilateral ties

From now on the United Kingdom-Georgia dialogue will be known as ‘The Wardrop Dialogue’ in honour of Sir Oliver Wardrop - Britain’s first Chief Commissioner to Georgia in 1919-1921 who believed in deepening cooperation between the two countries.

The UK’s Ambassador to Georgia Alexandra Hall Hall, who attended the first UK-Georgia bilateral dialogue in London on Wednesday, was confident that the UK-Georgia relationship was already strong but the new dialogue offered the chance to take it to a new level.

"I am delighted to open the restart of the dialogue between the UK and Georgia. We would like to continue the history of a long, strong relationship between the countries for further hundreds of years. This dialogue gives us the chance to consider the areas we can further develop,” Hall Hall said.

She further reiterated the UK’s commitment to Georgia’s territorial integrity and noted the UK supported Georgia to have good recognition to the NATO Summit.

The Wardrop Dialogue involved discussions on three main issues; politics, security and defence as well as economy.

During the day of talks the two sides discussed issues relating to foreign policy, national security and defence, and commercial, economic and energy with a particular focus on issues where the UK and Georgia may be able to work more closely and share knowledge and experience.

The Georgian delegation in the UK, led by Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili, included Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Mikheil Janelidze and Deputy Minister for Energy Mariam Valishvili.

The two Deputy Ministers met UK Trade Minister Lord Livingston and discussed economic relations, including the EU-Georgia Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area perspectives, Georgia’s exports diversification prosperities and recent reforms.

Livingston expressed interest in deepening relations with Georgia’s transport, energy and tourism sectors, Georgia’s Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development said in a press statement.

The parties also discussed the necessity of establishing direct flights between Georgia and the UK.

Earlier today the Georgian delegation met with representatives of BP, a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London. BP is one of the major foreign investors in Georgia, through energy transportation and sustainable development initiatives.

BP operates three major oil and gas pipelines in Georgia including the Western Route Export Pipeline (WREP), also known as the Baku-Supsa pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline and the South Caucasus gas pipeline (SCP), which carries gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian to markets in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.