Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has stated that the EU and Georgia are strategic partners, noting that ‘we continue to support resilience, recovery and reforms’ in the country.
Borrell met Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani yesterday during the Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit, where regional security and bilateral issues were discussed.
Happy we had a physical summit with our #EaP partners.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) December 15, 2021
Exchanges in the margins like with @DZalkaliani, with whom we discussed regional security & bilateral issues are so important. The EU & Georgia are strategic partners. We continue to support resilience, recovery & reforms pic.twitter.com/nTi9qkgVrl
Zalkaliani told TV channel Rustavi 2 that at the meeting he put forward the issue of the dire humanitarian situation in the occupied territories of Georgia, in particular the illegal arrests of several days ago, and emphasised the importance of preventing such actions with the involvement of the international community.
He also noted that Georgia’s mediation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which resulted in the release of 15 Armenian citizens in June, 2021 in exchange for providing Azerbaijan with maps of 97,000 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines in the Aghdam region, was appreciated by Borrell.
Had a candid conversation with @JosepBorrellF on the sidelines of the #EaPSummit. Difficult humanitarian situation in occupied terrs of????????, illegal detention of our citizens & our country's important role in maintaining peace across the region, were the main topics of the meeting. pic.twitter.com/ivtvW6bnyV
— David Zalkaliani (@DZalkaliani) December 15, 2021
The EU is also aware of our initiative to turn Tbilisi into a platform for dialogue between the three countries of the South Caucasus. I talked to him [Josep Borrell] about this topic and we have the strong support of the EU in this regard as well,” Zalkaliani said.
The sixth EaP summit was held yesterday in Brussels, with the participation of high officials of five countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Georgia was represented by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, who held several high level meetings during the event.
The EaP was launched on April 7, 2009 and united six Eastern European countries, the five aforementioned plus Belarus. However, Belarus suspended its participation in the EaP following economic sanctions imposed by the EU earlier this year.