Georgian PM highlights EU integration as “top foreign policy priority” for country

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Sunday highlighted the country’s goal of receiving the European Union membership as the “top foreign policy priority” and stressed the Government would “make every effort to accomplish the task”.

“To this end, after four years, we will have fulfilled more than 90 percent of commitments undertaken under the [EU-Georgia] Association Agreement and [the Deep and Comprehensive] Free Trade Area deal. This is our responsibility to the public”, Kobakhidze said.

In his comments over whether Georgia’s visa-free travel to the EU was under threat, the PM called such statements “absolutely unserious”, as the country would head for a “qualitative reset of relations [with the EU and the US], which is important for us”.

Further addressing Georgia's relations with the West, the Head of the Government pointed out three [political] events, the conclusion of which would “positively influence” the future of these ties:

• The last month’s parliamentary elections in Georgia, where the ruling Georgian Dream party won the majority of the seats.
• The US presidential elections in early November that ended [with the Republican Party nominee Donald Trump’s victory] “exactly in a way that will favour the rebooting of relations between Georgia and the US and Georgia and the EU.
• The discussion over ending the war in Ukraine, which is “actively underway”.

The PM also touched on the new composition of the European Commission, where Andrius Kubilius and Rasa Juknevičienė, the MEPs critical of the GD party, held positions, claiming those individuals were “no longer interesting” as the “potential for cooperation with them is practically used up” as a result of their actions.