Foreign Minister Meets Polish Leaders, Addresses Warsaw Security Forum

Foreign Minister Davit Zalkaliani continues his European trip with an official visit to Poland on October 24. Today, he met with his Polish counterpart and participated in the Warsaw Security Forum.

Bilateral ties

The Georgian and the Polish Foreign Ministers discussed enhancing economic ties and increasing trade exchange, especially in the field of agriculture.

According to the Polish MFA, the Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz underscored that Georgia is Poland’s “important and long-term partner” in the South Caucasus region. He also reiterated his country’s support for Georgia’s European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations, stressing that Georgia “deserves” to be the member of NATO.

FM #Czaputowicz:

We are for defining a clear perspective for Georgia’s European aspirations. #Poland believes that the continuation of European integration is a guarantee of long-term stability and economic development on the entire European continent.

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— Ministry of Foreign Affairs ?? (@PolandMFA) October 24, 2018

In Warsaw, Minister Zalkaliani met with Marshals of Senate Stanisław Karczewski and Sejm Marek Kuchcinski as well, and thanked the latter for the recently adopted resolution “on the 10^th Anniversary of the Russian Federation’s Aggression against Georgia.”

Warsaw Security Forum

The Georgian FM also participated in the Warsaw Security Forum hosted by the Polish capital on October 24-25, which gathered high level governmental representatives, military personnel, experts and journalists to discuss the security challenges of the European Union and NATO member and partner states.

Speaking at the ministerial session on Security in Europe – Fault Lines in the East together with his counterparts from Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania, the Georgian Foreign Minister underscored that “the process of European integration is very interesting itself,” which gives “strong democratic institutions, where human rights are protected and corruption is eliminated.”

We are facing the process of factual annexation of #Georgia‘s Abkhazia & Tskinvali regions by the Russian Federation – This cannot be accepted by us, by the International Community, we should not turn the blind eye to these illegal activities by Russia in our occupied territories pic.twitter.com/20wscZ5OcF

— David Zalkaliani (@DZalkaliani) October 24, 2018

Minister Zalkaliani also told the participants that “focus needs to be placed from our European partners on the region,” considering that due to its geo-political location “many big strategic energy projects are going through the Georgian territory.”

“Russia continues to build up its military bases in Georgia’s occupied territories thus posing a threat to the security of the entire region, and in particular, of the Black Sea region,” Zalkaliani underscored.

The Georgian Foreign Minister’s visit to Warsaw comes a day after his trip to Lithuania. Davit Zalkaliani returns to Georgia tomorrow.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)