Foreign Minister, MPs at Odds over Georgia’s UN Membership Fee

On October 6 Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili, who was summoned by the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Relations, informed MPs regarding the issue of Georgia’s UN membership fee arrears, which led Georgia being stripping of its right to vote at the organization.

The Georgian Foreign Minister told the MPs that the government has partially repaid its international debt, particularly its membership fee for representation at the United Nations in 2004; as a result Georgia hopes to restore its right to vote at the UN next week. The Georgian government has elaborated a ten-year schedule of repayment, under which the country will annually transfer USD 766,299 to the UN budget.

In September MPs, including Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Relations Kote Gabashvili, criticized Zourabichvili for, as they put it, inactivity that resulted in Georgia’s loss of the right to vote. The criticism coincided with Salome Zourabichvili’s visit to New York where she participated at the UN General Assembly session.

“It was absolutely inadmissible and surprising that this kind of statement was made during my visit to the UN. The Minister, it doesn’t matter, whether it is the Foreign Minister or any other, should feel backing from one’s country during this kind of visit,” Salome Zourabichvili told reporters after the hearing at the parliamentary committee.

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