Georgia appoints new ambassador to Austria
Ketevan Tsikhelashvili served as the Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality since August 2016, and the first deputy minister of the same body before that. Photo: gov.ge.
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Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, who previously served as the Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia, has been appointed as the country’s new ambassador to Austria.
She served as the Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality since August 2016, and the first deputy minister of the same body before that.
From January 2012 through October 2012 Tsikhelashvili served as the elected chairwoman of the National Platform of Georgia within the Civil Society Forum of Eastern Partnership. She has been actively involved in different international dialogue formats with Abkhaz and Ossetians, as well as chaired the second working group of Geneva International Discussions for the last three and a half years.
In 2006-2012 Tsikhelashvili was the director of the Liberal Academy of Tbilisi.
At various times she has worked as a consultant to the Friedrich Neumann Foundation in Georgia, as an analyst at the European Stability Initiative (ESI), and a researcher-assistant at the Political and Defense Division of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia Ketevan Tsikhelashvili said the safety of the population in the Russian-occupied region of Abkhazia is the key priority amid current tension there.
State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia Ketevan Tsikhelashvili said in response to recent developments in the Russia-occupied region of Abkhazia that the Government of Georgia is not only ready for dialogue with the Abkhaz and Ossetian public but is making steps forward.
The Georgian Minister of Reconciliation and Civil Equality Ketevan Tsikhelashvili has stated at the international Georgian Defence and Security Conference that NATO is not only a choice for Georgia, but that the country has no alternative.
A short time ago Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili announced the two people who would be the country’s new Minister of Defence and State Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality.
Georgia’s new ambassador to Austria and Vienna-based international organisations, Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, has presented her credentials to OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger today. Tsikhelashvili, who previously served as Georgia’s State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, was appointed as ambassador in May.
Tea Akhvlediani, former deputy health minister, has been appointed Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality, replacing Ketevan Tsikhelashvili in the position.
Georgian Ambassador to Austria and Vienna-based international organisations Ketevan Tsikhelashvili spoke of the security and human rights situation in the two Russia-occupied Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) at the OSCE permanent council session earlier today.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili is paying an official visit to Austria today. Diplomatic relations between Georgia and Austria were established on March 25, 1992. The Embassy of Georgia to Austria first was opened in 1993 while the Embassy of Austria in Tbilisi was launched in 2016. President Zurabishvili will start her visit in Vienna where she will meet with Georgians working in Austria. The meeting will be attended by the representatives of the arts and medicine.