Financial Times: “Georgia’s president aims to deepen Nato ties on Black Sea security”

Salome Zurabishvili, the new president of Georgia, is planning to forge closer ties with NATO and the European Union for boosting both trade and security of the Black Sea region, Financial Times reports.

The first woman president of her country, Zurabishvili told the website of the newspaper she sought to deepen relations with western partners but also reduce confrontation with Russia.

‘In general, the more we get [from Nato] the more sense of security we get,’ [Zurabishvili] said in an interview in Brussels, ahead of meetings at the headquarters of the western alliance, which Georgia aspires to join,” the FT article quoted the president saying.

The story, by Michael Peel and Henry Foy, places the Georgian president’s words in context of the heightened tensions in the wake of the Azov Sea incident in November, when Ukrainian sailors and their vessels were seized by Russian forces.

Zurabishvili’s wishes for meeting officials of the Donald Trump administration before the American president may hold talks with his Russian counterpart are also featured in the piece.

[The Georgian president] said she was seeking to travel to Washington DC to meet US officials “as soon as I am invited” to gauge the White House’s approach towards her country and the Black Sea region,” the story reads.

Read the full story here.