Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday said he wanted to send the message to Turkey that Georgia and its citizens “stood by” the country in the aftermath of the earthquake that hit its south earlier this month.
The Government Administration cited the PM with the comment in his visit of the city of Antakya in Hatay Province, affected by the devastating earthquake of February 6 that killed more than 42,000 people.
Garibashvili said he had already shared the message with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at their meeting on Thursday.
I reaffirmed Georgia’s solidarity and support to [Erdoğan]. This is a terrible tragedy that has befallen Turkey and our fraternal Turkish people”, Garibashvili said, adding he had held a “very fruitful conversation” at the meeting.
We talked about issues related to the strategic relationship between our countries. Turkey is one of the main strategic partners for us, the number one trade partner. Two years ago, we set a goal to increase the [mutual] trade turnover to $3 billion [...] Last year the trade turnover reached $2.8 billion, [and it] rose to almost $3 billion”, Garibashvili said.
The head of the Georgian Government also noted there was “even more potential” for the development of existing relations between the two countries.