Georgian PM: Black Sea region, global situation to “change for better starting next year”

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Friday told the country’s Parliament he believed the current situation in the Black Sea region and wider world would “change for the better starting next year”.

In comments as part of his annual report, Kobakhidze said his Government remained “optimistic” about the future, despite the current situation being “quite worrying”.

“The region and the whole world will calm down more. We have high hopes for this, and in such a situation, the political pressure in Georgia will also decrease. There is a real prospect of this, [so] let us wait for the development of events”, he told lawmakers.

“We should be ready for all kinds of development, although my personal, well-founded expectations are optimistic regarding the change in the situation in the world and in the region", Kobakhidze added.

He also emphasised the country’s “strategic location”, which he said “should be used as much as possible to further strengthen economic resources and potential”, adding the country had historically “connected the West and the East, Europe and Asia”.