Austrian President discusses cooperation issues in Tbilisi

Georgia and Austria are intensifying their relations in all fields, especially in agriculture and environment protection.

The presidents of the two countries met and discussed bilateral collaboration issues in Tbilisi today.

The Austrian delegation, led by president Heinz Fischer, is paying its first-ever official visit to Georgia. However, Austria’s Fischer and Georgia’s Giorgi Margvelashvili met in Vienna, Austria several months ago.

"In the past six months this is our second meeting,” Fischer said today, "which means we have a lot to talk about.”

The Austrian president said Georgian-Austrian relations started "on a really low level”, but today the two states were intensifying collaboration day by day.

"Georgia is a very important state in a very important region for Austria,” Fischer said.

Within the Austrian delegation’s visit to Georgia, the two sides will tomorrow sign memorandums on agriculture and environment.

"We will identify our priorities in these fields,” Fischer said.

The signature will be followed by a Georgia-Austria business forum in Tbilisi.

Fischer said he was in Georgia together with the "most serious representatives” of the Austrian business sector.

During their joint press briefing, Fischer and Margvelashvili stressed the importance of Georgia’s Association Agreement (AA) with the European Union (EU). Margvelashvili thanked his Austrian counterpart for his support during Georgia’s Euro-integration process.

The Austrian president said the AA was a document of cooperation between Georgia and the EU, while it did not represent any kind of threat to any other country.

The two presidents also talked about regional security issues and the difficulties Ukraine currently faced.

"In 2017, Austria will become the president state of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and will do its best to ease the situation in the region,” Fischer said.