The Speaker, H.E. Shalva Papuashvili held a meeting with the Chair of the Friendship Group with Georgia of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Halil Etyemez and the Group members. According to the administration of the Parliament of Georgia, the parties overviewed the years of close and productive cooperation between Georgia and Turkey in various sectors and hailed the recent intensification of the links between the Parliaments. The parties touched upon the regional cooperation. Mr. Papuashvili noted that Georgia attaches utmost importance to the Georgia-Turkey-Azerbaijan trilateral cooperation.

The emphasis was made on the importance of the enhancement of regional peace.

The Speaker expressed his gratitude to the Turkish MPs for their support to the sovereignty, territorial integrity of Georgia and the non-recognition policy. The parties reaffirmed their commitment to further boosting the strategic partnership.

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February. For more than two months since then, every single day has begun with the latest news on Ukraine. Along with sad news, people tune in, hoping to catch some better news, or drawing home and inspiration from stories of heroism and solidarity. Indeed, from the very first day, thousands of Georgians have united in support of Ukraine, and ordinary civilians, volunteers and organisations engage in humanitarian activities every day.

On 18 February, five Ukrainian friends had arrived in Georgia for a short stay. On 24 February, they found themselves trapped in Gudauri, unable to go home. Left in a foreign country, they were scrambling for resources to keep going, while desperately worried about their family and friends in Ukraine and the fate of their country.

Some of the friends eventually went to the Ukrainian border in Poland, but Yuliana and Katerina stayed in Georgia.

That was when they met Rusudan Tskhomelidze, who published a post on social media, offering shelter to Ukrainian citizens for free. The search for lodging marked the beginning of a friendship between the young Ukrainians and Rusudan’s family.

“We feel enormous support from the Georgian people” – Yuliana

A sociologist by profession, Yuliana was born and raised in Kyiv. She has a cat who is with her father in Kyiv, and her mother lives near Irpin. Yuliana is in a state of constant worry, but at least she is happy she can regularly communicate with her family.

“As soon as the war started, I created a family chat and I check it once every few hours, to know what is happening,” says Yuliana.
“The American press constantly writes that the Russian aggressors will run out of strength, equipment, also their morale is weak, and all this gives me hope that everything will end soon. It is hard to be certain about anything, no one knows what Russia will do. I hope that the political and economic pressure will have an effect and yield the desired results.”

The relationship with Rusudan’s family and the support of the Georgian people have been an enormous help to Yuliana in these difficult times.

“The relationship with Rusudan’s family eases our sorrow, they try to support us as much as they can. In addition to us not having to think about financial issues, they support us mentally as well. We’ve become friends with Rusudan’s family and this helps us. Generally, we feel great support from the Georgian people.

“Good news from Ukraine help me to deal with these days, there are bad news in between too, but I try to feel a little relief from the good news. I have video calls with my friends and family, I see my cats, I check social media and see that life goes on in Ukraine, they have switched to a new routine – all this reduces the worry in a way,” says Yulyana.

“There should be no war in any country” – Katerina

Before the war, Katerina had helped refugees from Belarus, Russia and Uzbekistan – she provided legal assistance, and facilitated their access to social services in Ukraine. Now she has ended up as a refugee herself.

“We did not leave because of war, but we became refugees because we cannot go back to Ukraine. I helped refugees before the war, I was a volunteer and tried to change people’s lives for the better. Now that Ukrainians are leaving the country and Europe has given them the same opportunity, that makes me happy,” says Katerina.

First of all, congratulations on the election of new president of Georgia.
Thanks to this, I am certain that relationship between Georgia and Korea will achieve development.

Since the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and Georgia on December 14, 1992, the bilateral relations of our two countries have been developing smoothly on the basis of the principles of peaceful co-existence.

From the Korean side visited Georgia high level delegations such as, delegation of transportation committee of National Assembly on March, Deputy Minister of Interior and Safety on July for participation on OGP summit Tbilisi, Chief constitutional Judge to Constitutional Court of Georgia.

And from Georgia side visited Korea high delegation such as,
First Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Mikheil Giorgadze on Feburary,
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs George Sharvashidze on March,
Chief of Korea-Georgia Parliamentary Friendship Association Shota Khabareli on September,
Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure Grigol Katsia on Global Infrastructure Cooperation Conference,
Member of Parliament Irina Pruidze on OGP Asia-Pacific Conference on October.

This is a good example of that mutual interest between Georgia and Korea is growing, and it gives positive dynamics on development of relationship between two countries.

Even more Korean companies have a strong interest and paying more attention to the Georgian economy because of its great growth potential, which was ranked on 6th position on Doing Business 2018.
The biggest economic project between two countries is Nenskra Hydroplant construction.
With the effort of recently newly appointed president, Mr. Kim Sun Young, K-water signed MOU with Government of Mestia, and is doing its best effort to accelerate the progress of this project

On October this year, KOTRA organized the visit of delegation of small-medium business to Georgia, Tbilisi, and they saw the great potential of Georgian market.

Regarding Tourism sector, many Korean tourists visit Georgia to enjoy its nature, historical and cultural wealth.
On September 2018, the growth of number of Korean tourists compare to same period of last year was 140%, furthermore, until the end of October, almost 13,000 koreans visited Georgia.
Until the end of the last year, this number was 7,200 people, and we can see that almost twice more Koreans visited Georgia already. We can expect much more growth next year.

In the field of Culture, I can see that the popularity of Korean Culture is growing.
On June this year, more than 500 students participated in K-pop Festival,
Also 2 days ago, on 1st of December, there was a Korean Culture Festival in Free University of Tbilisi, where participated many young Georgians, who enjoyed Korean songs and dance.

However in Korea, Georgian Language Lecture is opened at Hankguk University of Foreign Studies thanks to the ambassador Mr. Otar Berdzenishvili.
This is a really good chance to popularize Georgian language and culture.

From Korea will be dispatched qualified Taekwondo master, soon he will come to Georgia.
Georgia has strength on Judo, Basketball, Rugby and achieving great success on international competitions, so I hope that Georgia can this high success also on Taekwondo.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Such partnerships for progress, built over the past 26 years, do not come without effort, or affection.
All our guests present here have made contributions in different categories to the development of the friendly relations between our two countries.

I am very confident that the Republic of Korea will have more and more friends in Georgia and much more Georgian people will devote themselves to the development of the cooperative relations between our two countries.

To the further development of cooperative and friendly relations between Korea and Georgia,
To the good health of all the guests present here tonight,

Thank you!

Regarding to the celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the Georgian Canadian Friendship, Georgian Canadian Friendship Association held next event. In the bounds of the project tree of Georgian Canadian Friendship was symbolically planted in one of the historical districts of Tbilisi – in the square located at Davit Agmashenebeli Avenue. Officials of the local government and representatives of different sphere of the society took part in tree planting ceremony. We celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the Georgian Canadian Friendship and we have a great will to strengthen the friendship with the Canadian people more. I’m sure such events get the Georgian and Canadian people more close and our today’s event was held by this aspiration. Hence from this I believe our countries will have more collaboration and successes in cultural, sport, trade, tourism relations and relations between the people. I thank Canadian people and government which were strong legitimist of territorial wholeness and sovereignty of Georgia during the last 25 years, director of Georgian Canadian Friendship Association, Ilia Zukakishvili mentioned. It should be mentioned that several events will be held under the auspices of Georgian Canadian Friendship during the following months. The event was held supporting by Tbilisi City Hall.

The Georgian Vice Premier, Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze met with Chairman of the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), Li Jinzao, on the sidelines of the 22ndGeneral Assembly of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

The Georgian Foreign Minister emphasized Georgia’s successeful co-operation with China in many areas, including in tourism and welcomed the establishment of the world tourism alliance at the initiative of China.

Discussions focused on issues of bilateral relations. Mikheil Janelidze noted with satisfaction Georgia’s active participation in One belt One road Initiative. Special attention was paid to the signing of free trade agreement between Georgia and China, Georgia’s involvement in the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank and many other important projects.

The development of tourism, culture and people-to-people contacts was identified as the priority areas of co-operation between the two countries. It was underlined that Georgia with its winter and summer resorts is an attractive tourist destination for China. Special note, in this context, was taken of the importance of direct flights between China and Georgia and of Chinese businessmen’s rising interest in Georgia’s tourism potential.
 
At the end of the meeting Mikheil Janelidze invited Li Jinzao to Georgia.
The meeting with the Chairman of the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) was attended by the newly-elected UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili and Georgia’s Ambassador to China Davit Aptsiauri.
 

Georgia and the Swiss Confederation mark the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.  In connection with this fact, the two foreign ministers exchanged congratulation letters highlighting the close partnership between the two countries.  
“The Georgian-Swiss relationship has been significantly expanded throughout the last few years and nowadays we mark a number of striking and meaningful achievements in our cooperation” – reads the letter by Mikheil Janelidze.
The Foreign Ministers pay special attention to the intensification of economic relations and people-to-people contacts.
The Swiss Foreign Minister writes in his congratulation letter that “Last Year’s signing of the Free Trade Agreement between EFTA countries and Georgia represents an important step towards closer economic relations.“ According to Didier Burkhalter, the Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs: “the new Swiss Cooperation Agency for the South Caucasus region to be implemented in the years 2017-2020 will contribute to strengthening the links between the two countries and peoples”.