GEORGIA: A call for Ireland to support Georgia's efforts to develop closer relations with the European Union was made yesterday by Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili.
Georgia has already been included in the EU's Neighbourhood Policy and the Minister called for the preparation of "a real action plan" to give the relationship more substance.
Making the first official visit to Ireland by a Georgian Foreign Minister, Ms Zourabichvili was born in Paris and only last year held the position of French ambassador to Georgia. Her parents were Georgians who went into exile after their country's independence was snuffed out by the Soviet Red Army in 1921.
She joined the French diplomatic service and eventually became ambassador to Georgia. However, after he came to power in the "Rose Revolution" of 2003, President Mikheil Saakashvili suggested to President Chirac that Ms Zourabichvili should become Georgia's foreign minister:
"They both agreed it was a very good idea." During a visit to the Institute of European Affairs in Dublin, Ms Zourabichvili said that although Georgia and Ireland were located at the two extremes of the European continent, they had much in common, including their size and population.
She told The Irish Times that, since Georgia and Ireland both struggled to achieve independence in the early part of the 20th century, Georgian patriots and writers became close observers of the Irish situation.
Although welcoming Russia's decision to withdraw troops on a phased basis from Georgia after two centuries of occupation, she complained that corrupt members of the Russian military were selling weapons, "unofficially of course", to separatists inside Georgia. This was also a danger to the Government in Moscow because the same weapons could also be used by separatists in territories under Russian rule.
In a speech at the institute, she said it was not possible to ignore the border conflicts in her country and focus solely on social and economic development - you had to give attention to both at the same time.
Describing Georgia as "a complex country in a difficult region". That region was rich in oil and gas: "It is also a region that is rich in problems." Georgia had "all the most interesting neighbours that you can find today".
Stressing Georgia's desire for closer relations with the EU, she welcomed the decision to open accession talks with Turkey, one of her country's neighbours. This was "a very good and positive decision", she said.