On December 1 at 11:00 in Tbilisi, EU4Culture with the support of the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia will organize a press conference and an award ceremony to officially announce three selected cities that will receive EUR 30 000 grant to prepare the Cultural Development Strategies.

The call for grant applications was launched in May 2021. It aims to support non-capital cities and towns to develop and implement Cultural Development Strategies, following the approach of the European Capitals of Culture. Overall, 70 cities from 5 Eastern Partnership countries participated in the call. After evaluation of the submitted applications, the following 3 cities from Georgia were selected: Zugdidi, Kutaisi, Poti.

Selected cities will receive up to 30 000 EUR grants to develop the Cultural Development Strategies. The 6-month working period for preparing the document starts on December 1. At the final stage of the call, one town or city out of these 3 will be awarded a grant of up to €300,000 to implement its strategy.

Mr. Catalin Gherman, Deputy Head of Cooperation of the EU Delegation to Georgia; mayors of the three cities, project partners, EU4Culture project representatives will attend the event. The event will open with welcoming speeches and an award ceremony, where the mayors of the selected cities will officially receive grant certificates, followed by the Q&A session for the media.

EU4Culture is a four-year project funded by the European Union to support culture and creative sector with a special focus on non-capital cities and towns in the Eastern Partnership Countries. The project is implemented by the Goethe Institut (lead), Institut Francais Georgie, Danish Cultural Institute, Czech Centers.

EU Delegation to Georgia

At the 15th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization, held on November 28, 2021, the Heads of State and Government of the participating countries reflected their vision of the ECO's work and highlighted the unique geo-economic role of the ECO, which has a positive effect on regional cooperation.

In his speech, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov highlighted the essence of interaction between the ECO Member States, united geographically, historically, as well as traditional customs and values. “Our peoples here have centuries-old traditions, valuable experience has been accumulated, which requires its revival, use and enrichment, taking into account modern realities,” President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted.

He made a special emphasis on the further intensification of trade and economic relations between the countries of this format, which is aimed at increasing the volume and diversification of trade. “In this regard, I consider it expedient to think about creating, on the principles of public-private partnership, specialized ECO business platforms, each of which, in its own direction, could purposefully work in the interests of developing and expanding trade relations between our countries,” the Head of Turkmenistan emphasized.

The idea of creating effective mechanisms to ensure stable and dynamic growth of trade and investment partnerships has been put forward. In this regard, the expediency of establishing various forms of cooperation in such segments as the production of industrial goods, agriculture, and the service sector was emphasized. In this context, the Head of state highlighted the importance of economic interaction with the use of high, primarily digital technologies, and the widespread use of electronic trading platforms.

Stating the importance of enhancing cooperation in medicine and health care, the President of Turkmenistan noted the advisability of establishing, within the framework of the ECO, systemic channels for the exchange of experience, methods and best practices in the field of combating dangerous infectious diseases. “Economic cooperation in the ECO space should be accompanied by the expansion of interaction in the cultural and humanitarian sphere,” said President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

During his speech at the 15th ECO Summit, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov also touched upon energy issues, highlighted the importance of expanding the transport and communication sphere.

“Among the priority directions of the ECO, Turkmenistan sees the development of cooperation in the transport and energy spheres,” the Head of state noted. He stressed that at present, these segments of the partnership objectively act as a defining trend in global economic growth.

In this context, the President of Turkmenistan voiced the need to consolidate joint efforts in this direction and gave examples of the phased implementation of the construction of power transmission lines along the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan route, railways from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, as well as the advancement of the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

It was noted that Turkmenistan pays special attention to the activation of transport and transit communication along the East-West and South-North lines. In particular, this is about the creation of transport corridors Uzbekistan - Turkmenistan - Iran - Oman, as well as Afghanistan - Turkmenistan - Azerbaijan - Georgia - Turkey.

In this regard, the President of Turkmenistan proposed to study the use of logistics and infrastructure facilities in Turkmenistan itself in order to activate transport and transit communication between the regions of the Caspian basin and the Black Sea with access to the countries of Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region.

The President of Turkmenistan noted the importance of Afghanistan's participation in these processes, which thus becomes an active subject, a valuable and integral participant in economic partnership. “We see this as a strategic prospect for Afghanistan, its role in regional and global processes, the most important condition for achieving peace, harmony and development on Afghan soil,” added the Head of Turkmenistan.

Today, on November 28, on the Day of Formation of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), the 15th Summit of the Leaders of the ECO Member States was held in Ashgabat under the chair of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

As is known, in 2021, Turkmenistan chairs the Economic Cooperation Organization. The chairmanship of our state was adopted on March 4 of this year at the 14th ECO leaders' Summit, which took place in Turkey online.

The Heads of state and government of the ECO Member States, in particular Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan, attended today’s Summit.

Before the start of the main session, a ceremony of joint photographing of the Heads of state and government of the ECO Member States took place.

Opening the 15th ECO Summit, the President of Turkmenistan warmly greeted the Heads of Delegations and gave the floor to the Chairman of the 14th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization, President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Then the participants of the ECO meeting elected the President of Turkmenistan as the Chairman of the 15th Summit.

Speaking at the Summit, the President of Turkmenistan voiced the priority areas of cooperation within the framework of the country's chairmanship in the Organization and stressed that the Turkmen side with good reason considers the holding of this forum as an important event designed to strengthen cooperation of the participating countries in the economic, trade-investment, and cultural-humanitarian spheres.

Stating the progressive dynamics of the dialogue between Turkmenistan and the ECO, the Head of the Turkmen state also noted the successful development of friendly, good-neighborly relations with each Member State of the Organization separately.

Speaking during the Forum, the Heads of State and Government of the participating countries, as well as the ECO Secretary General, emphasized that the current Summit has become an effective platform for making decisions on topical and key aspects of regional economic cooperation in the ECO space.

Today, on the platform of the Organization, all conditions have been created for the further development of multilateral regional cooperation for the socio-economic growth of the member countries, as well as the expansion of effective mutual cooperation in the field of trade, industry, transport and communications, agriculture, energy, health care, education, science and culture.

As is known, the ECO is currently a respected, authoritative international economic structure that has received recognition in the world and today's meeting is designed to further strengthen the relations of friendship, good-neighborliness and effective mutually beneficial partnership between all Member States, to determine the areas of joint work for the coming period.

Following the results of the 15th ECO Summit, the Final Document was adopted.

Then, the ECO awards ceremony took place, during which representatives of the Organization's Member States were awarded a special award from the Economic Cooperation Organization in the categories "science and technology", "economics", "history, culture, literature and fine arts" and "agriculture and the environment".

На состоявшемся 28 ноября 2021 года 15-ом Саммите Организации экономического сотрудничества, главы государств и правительств стран-участников отразили свое видение работы ОЭС и выделили уникальную геоэкономическую роль ОЭС, положительно влияющую на региональное сотрудничество.

В своем выступлении Президент Туркменистана Гурбангулы Бердымухамедов выделил суть взаимодействия стран-участников ОЭС, объединённых географически, исторически, а также традиционными обычаями и ценностями. «Здесь у наших народов имеются многовековые традиции, накоплен ценный опыт, который требует своего возрождения, использования и обогащения с учетом современных реалий» - отметил Президент Гурбангулы Бердымухамедов. 

Особый акцент он сделал на дальнейшую активизацию торгово-экономических отношений между странами данного формата, что нацелено на увеличение объёма и диверсификацию товарооборота. «Считаю в этой связи целесообразным подумать над созданием, на принципах государственно-частного партнерства, специализированных деловых платформ ЭКО, каждая из которых по своему направлению, могла бы целенаправленно работать в интересах развития и расширения торговых связей между нашими странами» - подчеркнул Глава Туркменистана.

Выдвинута идея создания эффективных механизмов, обеспечивающих стабильный и динамичный рост торгово-инвестиционного партнерства. В этой связи, подчеркнута целесообразность налаживании различных форм кооперации в таких сегментах, как производство промышленных товаров, сельское хозяйство, сфера услуг.  В этом контексте глава государства выделил значимость экономического взаимодействия с применением высоких, прежде всего, цифровых технологий, широкого использования электронных торговых площадок.

Констатируя значимость активизации сотрудничества в медицине и здравоохранении, Президент Туркменистана отметил целесообразность налаживания в рамках ОЭС системных каналов обмена опытом, методиками и наработками в сфере противодействия опасным инфекционным заболеваниям. «Экономическое сотрудничество на пространстве ОЭС должно сопровождаться расширением взаимодействия в культурно-гуманитарной сфере» - отметил Президент Гурбангулы Бердымухамедов.

В ходе своего выступления на 15-ом Саммите ОЭС Президент Туркменистана Гурбангулы Бердымухамедов также затронул вопросы энергетики, выделил значимость расширения транспортно-коммуникационной сферы.

«В числе приоритетных приоритетов ОЭС Туркменистан видит развитие сотрудничества в транспортной и энергетической сферах» - отметил глава государства. Он подчеркнул, что в настоящее время данные сегменты партнерства объективно выступают в качестве определяющей тенденции глобального экономического роста.

В этом контексте Президент Туркменистана озвучил необходимость консолидации совместных усилий в данном направлении и привел примеры поэтапной реализации строительства линий электропередачи по маршруту Туркменистан-Афганистан-Пакистан, железных дорог из Туркменистана в Афганистан, а также продвижение строительства газопровода Туркменистан-Афганистан-Пакистан-Индия.

Было отмечено, что в Туркменистане особое внимание уделяется активизации транспортно-транзитного сообщения по линиям Восток-Запад и Юг-Север. В частности, речь идет о создании транспортных коридоров Узбекистан – Туркменистан – Иран – Оман, а также Афганистан – Туркменистан – Азербайджан – Грузия – Турция. 

В этой связи, Президент Туркменистана предложил изучить вопросы использования логистических и инфраструктурных объектов в самом Туркменистане в целях активизации транспортно-транзитного сообщения между регионами Каспийского бассейна и Черного моря с выходом на страны Европы, Ближнего Востока, Азиатско-тихоокеанского региона.

Президент Туркменистана отметил важность участия в этих процессах Афганистана, который, таким образом, становится действующим субъектом, ценным неотъемлемым участником экономического партнерства, «в этом видим стратегическую перспективу для Афганистана, его роль в региональных и глобальных процессах, важнейшее условие достижения мира, согласия и развития на афганской земле» добавил Глава Туркменистана.

Сегодня, 28-го ноября, в День образования Организации экономического сотрудничества (ОЭС), в Ашхабаде под председательством Президента Туркменистана Гурбангулы Бердымухамедова состоялся 15-й саммит Лидеров государств-участников ОЭС.

Как известно, в 2021 году Туркменистан председательствует в Организации экономического сотрудничества. Председательство нашим государством было принято 4 марта текущего года на 14-м саммите руководителей ОЭС, который состоялся в Турции в онлайн-режиме.

В сегодняшнем Саммите приняли участие и выступили главы государств и правительств стран-участников ОЭС, в частности Азербайджана, Ирана, Казахстана, Кыргызстана, Пакистана, Таджикистана, Турции и Узбекистана.

Перед началом основной сессии состоялась церемония совместного фотографирования глав государств и правительств стран-участников ОЭС.

Открывая 15-й саммит ОЭС, Президент Туркменистана тепло поприветствовал Глав делегаций и предоставил слово Председателю 14-го Саммита Организации Экономического Сотрудничества Президенту Турецкой Республики Реджепу Тайипу Эрдогану.

Затем участники заседания ОЭС избрали Президента Туркменистана Председателем 15-го Саммита.  

Выступая на Саммите, Президент Туркменистана озвучил приоритетные направления сотрудничества в рамках председательства страны в Организации и подчеркнул, что туркменская сторона с полным основанием рассматривает проведение данного форума в качестве важного события, призванного укрепить сотрудничество стран-участниц в экономической, торгово-инвестиционной, культурно-гуманитарной сферах.

Констатируя поступательную динамику диалога Туркменистана с ОЭС, Глава туркменского государства также отметил успешное развитие дружественных, добрососедских отношений с каждым государством-членом Организации в отдельности.

Выступившие в ходе Форума главы государств и правительств стран-участников, а также Генеральный секретарь ОЭС особо отметили, что нынешний Саммит стал эффективной площадкой, на которой приняты решения по актуальным и ключевым аспектам регионального экономического сотрудничества на пространстве ОЭС.  

Сегодня на платформе Организации созданы все условия для дальнейшего развития многостороннего регионального сотрудничества для социально-экономического роста стран-членов, а также расширения эффективной взаимокооперации в области торговли, промышленности, транспорта и связи, сельского хозяйства, энергетики, здравоохранения, образования, науки и культуры.

Как известно, в настоящее время ОЭС представляет собой уважаемую, авторитетную международную экономическую структуру, получившую признание в мире и сегодняшняя встреча призвана еще больше укрепить отношения дружбы, добрососедства и эффективного взаимовыгодного партнерства между всеми государствами-членами, определить направления совместной работы на предстоящий период.

По итогам 15-го Саммита ОЭС принят Итоговый документ.

Затем состоялась церемония вручения наград ОЭС, в ходе которого представители стран-членов Организации, удостоились специальной награды Организации экономического сотрудничества в категориях «наука и техника», «экономика», «история, культура, литература и изобразительное искусство» и «сельское хозяйство и окружающая среда».

Though distance apart, China and Africa have engaged each other as good friends, good partners, and good brothers.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service

The U.S. Embassy is disappointed that, once again, Parliament is moving forward with Supreme Court appointments before it has completed an independent assessment of the previous waves of judicial reform, as Parliament’s leaders agreed to do.  We are also concerned that judicial appointments are proceeding without the participation of non-judge members of the High Council of Justice. While the High Council and Parliament have rushed through appointment of judges over the past year, there has been no action on non-judge appointments despite the positions being vacant for months. The people of Georgia, through the non-judge High Council members, are supposed to have a voice in the selection of these influential and important judges, who are being appointed to lifetime positions on the Supreme Court. The exclusion of independent voices from this process adds to the impression that Supreme Court judicial appointments are being made without meaningful transparency, accountability, or impartiality.

Before any further Supreme Court judges are appointed, we strongly encourage Parliament to prioritize the appointment of impartial, independent, non-judge members to the High Council of Justice, and complete an independent assessment of the previous waves of reform by Spring 2022. Important work has been done since independence to strengthen Georgia’s judicial branch, with the assistance of the United States and others.  Georgia’s closest partners and supporters, as well as Georgia’s political leaders, are united in agreeing that judicial reform needs to continue. The goal now must be to build an impartial, transparent, merit-based judicial system that the people of Georgia can have full confidence in and that allows the full participation of the many qualified, ethical judges and lawyers who work with integrity to promote the rule of law.  

US Embassy in Tbilisi

The fourth high-level EU–Georgia Strategic Security Dialogue took place on 25 November 2021 in Brussels. The meeting reflected the commitment and interest of both the EU and Georgia to take forward their cooperation in the area of foreign and security policy, in line with the EU-Georgia Association Agreement.
The participants discussed the conflict dynamics in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, including recent developments on the ground in relation with Russia, and stressed the importance of the implementation of the EU mediated 12 August 2008 ceasefire agreement. Both sides once again highlighted the important role of the EU Monitoring Mission for peace and security in Georgia, and underlined the necessity of full implementation of its mandate. The European Union reaffirmed its unwavering support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.
They also discussed a number of topical foreign policy issues, including the state of affairs and increasing security challenges in the South Caucasus and the wider region.
The EU expressed appreciation for Georgia's continued and valuable contribution to the EU Common Security and Defence Policy, particularly through Georgia’s participation in EU-led crisis management operations and missions in the Central African Republic and the Republic of Mali. The participants also discussed avenues for increased cooperation in the field of security and defence, including in relation to addressing hybrid threats and increasing Georgia's capacities and resilience. The European Union commended Georgia’s role as a transit hub during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The dialogue was co-chaired by Deputy Secretary-General for Political Affairs / Political Director of the European External Action Service Enrique Mora and First Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia Lasha Darsalia. First Deputy Defence Minister of Georgia Lela Chikovani also participated in the meeting.
Deputy Secretary-General Mora said:
"The EU continues to remain strongly engaged in efforts to achieve peaceful conflict resolution in Georgia by using all instruments at its disposal. The EU also values the role of Georgia as an important partner in promoting security both regionally and internationally. The EU has a clear interest in a secure, stable and prosperous Georgia. We want to actively contribute to durable and comprehensive settlements of all conflicts in the region, including where possible through support for confidence-building, stabilisation, and post-conflict rehabilitation measures. The EU stands ready to provide further impetus for regional cooperation and economic development of the South Caucasus, including as appropriate through the opportunities available under the Eastern Partnership."
Deputy Foreign Minister Darsalia said:
“Georgia and the EU share a common goal of promoting security and stability in Europe and beyond. This interest has been manifested in the high-level Strategic Dialogue that Georgia and EU launched in 2017. Today’s meeting is yet another confirmation that EU and Georgia stand together to strengthen our resilience to hybrid threats and counter through joint efforts challenges such as cyber threats or disinformation. We have also had an exchange on new possibilities to upgrade our security cooperation. Georgia has reaffirmed its interest to engage in the EU PESCO projects. Georgia condemns continuous provocations in and around the occupied territories of Georgia. We updated the EU on the work of the Government Commission on the Georgia’s State Strategy for De-occupation and Peaceful Conflict Resolution. We raised the issue of “Otkhozoria-Tatunashvili” List and recalled the landmark judgement of the European Court of Human Rights. Georgia emphasizes the necessity of peaceful resolution of the Russia-Georgia conflict and, in this regard, underlined the importance of reaching tangible results in the Geneva International Discussions.”
The meetings of the high-level EU–Georgia Strategic Security Dialogue are held once a year and cover issues of common interest in the field of foreign and security policy, including the CSDP.

MFA Georgia