EU membership a strategic goal for Georgia, says ambassador

GEORGIA WOULD like to be part of the European family as soon as possible, the country’s ambassador to the UK and Ireland has said.

On a visit to Dublin yesterday, Giorgi Badridze said the country could learn a lot from how Ireland opened up its economy. He also said Georgian prime minister Nika Gilauri, a University of Limerick graduate, would visit Ireland in June to promote greater economic ties between the countries.

Georgia gained its independence from Russia in 1991. In 2008, it engaged in armed conflict with Russia and with separatist groups from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Afterwards, Russia recognised the two provinces as independent states, but the EU did not.

Mr Badridze, whose embassy is based in London, met officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday. Topics for discussion included Georgian security and economic and energy reforms. He also met some of the 1,000-plus Georgians currently living in Ireland.

Joining the EU is Georgia’s most important single strategic direction, Mr Badridze said. The country will sign a treaty on visas in the summer and is also in “deep and comprehensive” free trade negotiations with the EU.

He said the country realised the negotiations were not a guarantee of membership and it would be a lengthy and difficult road to membership, but Georgia would like to be part of the European family as soon as possible. “Georgians are determined to fight on for their independence and we are determined to build a European democracy,” he said. “We have survived as an essentially European people with European values.”

Speaking on relations with Russia, he said Georgia was punished for wanting to be free and European. He said Russia’s goal in the 2008 conflict was to prevent Georgia’s integration into Nato and into European structures.

“Also through its attempt to control Georgia, Russia would ensure its near-monopoly of supply of energy to European markets,” he said. Mr Badridze said Russia should be a very close and good neighbour, like Ireland and the UK, but was not.

He also said Georgia could learn from Ireland’s example of transformation, particularly in the area of agriculture, and there was a great deal of unused potential between the countries.

“We may be at the opposite ends of the European Union, but there are many elements that connect us,” he said.