Georgia’s Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili on Friday reviewed partnership and his Government's efforts to meet conditions for the European Union’s candidacy status with the Portuguese Parliament Speaker Augusto Santos Silva and Zacarias da Costa, the Executive Secretary of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries.
Both meetings in Lisbon highlighted Georgia’s “successful implementation” of the 12-point conditions outlined by the EU last year for granting the country its membership candidate status, as well as “positive outcomes” of NATO’s Vilnius Summit for Tbilisi earlier this month and security challenges sparked by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Georgian foreign office said.
During my visit to Portugal, had an opportunity to meet with @ASantosSilvaPAR, President of the Assembly of the Republic. We spoke about the friendly relations between our countries& highlighted core aspects of???????????????? bilateral coop. We put a special emphasis on ????????'s ???????? integration. pic.twitter.com/StsGPW7HjZ
— Ilia Darchiashvili (@iliadarch) July 21, 2023
Darchiashvili told the officials Tbilisi was expecting Portugal’s support in the process of obtaining the EU candidacy later this year, and thanked them for their “firm” support for Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration and its territorial integrity.
The meeting with the CPLP Secretary also reviewed the humanitarian situation in Georgia’s Russian-occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions, and cultural ties between Georgia and Portugal, before highlighting Tbilisi’s efforts to promote the Portuguese language and culture through a centre at Tbilisi State University.