The Telegraph: ‘global Britain brings hope to small countries in Russia’s shadow’

Sophie Katsarava was appointed Georgia’s ambassador to the UK in April 2020.

By Gvantsa Gabekhadze - Review by Journalist of Agenda.ge

Agenda.ge, May 07, 2020, Tbilisi, Georgia

The Telegraph has released a letter by Georgia’s new Ambassador to the UK Sophie Katsarava, where she speaks about the challenges and opportunities in UK-Georgia relations in the post-Brexit period.

Katsarava says that the Brexit debate has naturally faded into the background in light of Covid-19, but it will return, as will other geopolitical debates.

In Georgia, we see Brexit as an opportunity for the UK to confirm your commitment as a leading member of the Western community, and to extend trading, economic, and political links around the world. The recent post-Brexit Strategic Partnership Agreement signed between the UK and Georgia, including a new trade deal, is a prime example,” Katsarava said.

She says that for some, ‘Global Britain’ can seem like a repetitive catchphrase, but for nations like Georgia, it has real meaning.

This is the start of a new chapter in the UK-Georgia relationship: there will be challenges, of course (the current pandemic is the most pressing), but there will be great opportunities also. As we chart a path out of this pandemic, and back towards economic growth, open trade, and cooperation it will be essential that as allies we work together to rebuild our economies,” Katsarava said.

Katsarava says that when she was offered the post of the Georgian ambassador to the UK the world was a very different place, with people discussing Brexit and other geopolitical issues.

In the eyes of some, it presaged a crisis; for others, an opportunity to remake the UK as an independent nation and face outwards to the world.In the background, but ever-present was a larger, but slower-moving geopolitical change: the resurgence of Russian aggression – directed not only at its neighbours, including Georgia, but further afield as well,” Katsarava stated.

She said that murders on the streets of London, Salisbury and elsewhere ‘echoed the violence that takes place regularly in our occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali.’