Georgian FM holds farewell meeting with French ambassador to Georgia

Georgian foreign minister Ilia Darchiashvili on Tuesday held a farewell meeting with the French ambassador to Georgia Diego Colas, with the latter’s diplomatic term in the country coming to a close.

At the meeting, the strategic partnership established between Georgia and France and the fruitful cooperation in both bilateral and multilateral formats were highly appreciated by the officials, the foreign ministry said.

The parties positively assessed the first meeting of the European Political Community summit in Prague on October 6, with Darchiashvili noting that Georgia was “glad” to participate in the initiative of the French president Emmanuel Macron, having been an “additional platform” for negotiations for the members of the “big European family”.

Darchiashvili thanked the outgoing ambassador for his “special” contribution to deepening relations between the countries and highlighted the “great” importance of the Georgian-French strategic dialogue named after Dimitri Amilakhvari [the French military officer of Georgian origin and lieutenant colonel of the French foreign legion], covering the main aspects of bilateral relations and reflecting the “quality and intensity” of cooperation between the two countries. The officials expressed “readiness” to hold the second round of the dialogue.

The French diplomat thanked the minister for the “very fruitful” cooperation and emphasised the close relations between the countries, once again confirming France's strong support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

The French ambassador noted that working in Georgia has been a “special experience” for him, and stressed he was “very optimistic” about the prospect of further deepening cooperation between the two countries in the future, with Darchiashvili wishing him success in his future activities.