Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday summarised the Georgian delegation’s working visit to Japan as “very fruitful” and said the relationship between the two countries entered a “completely” new stage.
Papuashvili highlighted the agreements on investment protection and a joint credit mechanism between Georgia and Japan, thus facilitating Japanese investments in the country, and stressed the importance of deepening this relationship.
The parliament speaker said the political cooperation and maintenance of a peace corridor between Europe and Asia had been discussed at the meetings, in terms of the security challenges in the Black Sea region due to Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine, and noted that Georgia’s role to provide Europe with an “alternate” way of energy and other resources supply had been emphasised.
We had a very intense conversation about parliamentary cooperation. It is important for parliamentary friendship groups to have an opportunity to exchange ideas and cooperate”, Papuashvili said, adding these visits would “strengthen” relations between Georgia and Japan.
The Georgian parliament’s delegation, led by Papuashvili, on Monday started its working visit to Tokyo, within the framework of which, the Georgian parliament speaker discussed parliamentary cooperation with Hosoda Hiroyuki, the speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan.
We had an intensive talk about Russia's aggression against Ukraine, [its] occupation policy [of Georgian territories], and [resulting] security challenges in Georgia. There is also great interest in cooperation with Georgia in the field of renewable energy. Japan is interested in closer relations with Georgia”, the parliament speaker said.
During the working visit Papuashvili also discussed Georgia's investment and transit potential, with representatives of Tokyo Electric Power Company and Itochu Corporation, as well as the company's present and upcoming projects in Georgia in the areas of renewable energy, urban infrastructure revitalisation and other areas.