Greek crisis forces Donald Tusk to cancel Georgia visit

The European Council president’s much-anticipated visit to Georgia has been postponed due to ongoing unrest in Greece.

Donald Tusk was scheduled to arrive in Georgia tomorrow on his first visit to the country as EC president, after being invited by Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, but his visit was cancelled at the last minute. No makeup date has been announced.

Preben Aaman, spokesperson for the European Council (EC) president told Georgian news agency interpressnews.ge that Tusk’s visit was cancelled because of "events currently transpiring in Greece”.

"You know that a few-hour-long summit was held on Greek issues. Many talks are still to be conducted. For these reasons, Donald Tusk’s visit to Georgia was cancelled,” said Aaman.

Georgia was saddened to learn Tusk would not visit the country. The Georgian side placed much importance on Tusk’s visit, now even more-so after the recent ‘border line’ changes near breakaway Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia), where Russian occupational forces advanced 2km into Georgian territory.

The EC president’s visit to Georgia has been highly anticipated since the Riga Summit, where Georgia received a promise from the European Union (EU) that the country would be granted a visa free travel regime if it met certain criteria by 2015.

Tusk’s visit was supposed to last for two days. While here Tusk was scheduled to meet President Margvelashvili in the coastal city of Batumi before meeting the Prime Minister and other officials in Tbilisi on the second day of his trip.

The EC top official was also due to visit the occupation line and see the situation on the ground.