Kyrgyz President pays his first visit to Georgia
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, October 14
The President of Kyrgyz Republic, Almazbek Atambayev, is paying his first official visit to Georgia. Atambayev arrived in Tbilisi late on October 12 with his delegation.
Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili welcomed his Kyrgyz counterpart to the Presidential Palace. The Presidents held a face to face meeting and discussed relations between Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
Moreover, the officials discussed the situation in the occupied territories of Georgia and incidents of human rights violations.
Margvelashvili pointed out that Georgia still faces Russia’s creeping occupation in Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which complicates the humanitarian situation of the local population.
Several agreements were signed at the meeting concerning the promotion of further cooperation in security, economy and education.
Georgia’s President noted that the agreements signed in the fields of security, economy, and education will create new cooperation opportunities between the two countries.
In addition, an agreement on avoidance of double taxation was also signed in order to ensure prevention of evasion of income and capital taxes, which will increase economic cooperation between Georgia and Kyrgyzstan and attract more foreign investments.
The regional role of Georgia and the development of the trans-regional collaboration were also discussed at the meeting.
Giorgi Margvelashvili noted that the Association Agreement and a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) between the European Union and Georgia create a unique opportunity for the development of mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation between the countries.
The President underlined that Georgia, as a bridge connecting the east and west, is always ready to share the DCFTA benefits with its partner states.
The meeting was attended by a number of Georgian governmental officials: the Minister of Economic and Sustainable Development Dimitri Kumsishvili, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Janelidze, Education Minister Alexander Jejeleva, the Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi Mghebrishvili, the Minister of Finance Nodar Khaduri, the head of the Presidential Administration Giorgi Abashishvili, the President’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Tengiz Pkhaladze and members of the Kyrgyz Republic delegation.
