Georgia’s PM meets EU, OSCE chairs in New York
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, September 20
“The European Union supports all the processes related to Georgia's integration into the European family,” the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said at a meeting with Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili late on September 19 prior to Kvirikashvili’s speech at the UN’s 72nd session in New York.
The officials discussed Georgia-EU bilateral relations, ongoing reforms in the country, and the situation in the occupied territories of Georgia at the UN headquarters in New York, the Government of Georgia’s press office reported.
The government press service announced that the President of the European Council once again reaffirmed the EU's “unequivocal support” for Georgia's territorial integrity, sovereignty and all the processes related to Georgia's integration into the European family.
The same evening, Kvirikashvili met the Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE),Thomas Greminger.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister discussed the “deplorable security and human rights conditions on the occupied territories of Georgia” and emphasized the importance of OSCE engagement in the formats of Geneva International Discussions and Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms, the Government of Georgia’s press office stated.
The officials also discussed local self-government elections.
The Prime Minister thanked the OSCE Secretary General for the involvement of the ODIHR monitoring mission in the election monitoring mission, which will “maximize the level of transparency of the electoral environment”.
The Georgian delegation, headed by Kvirikashvili, left for New York on September 18 and is scheduled to stay there until September 22.
Kvirikashvili will hold high level, bilateral meetings during his visit, his press service says.
The PM will address the participants of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an organisation composed of 75 foreign states.
OGP events are also within the session.
For the first time, Georgia has become the chair of the OGP this year, for a one year term taking the role from France.
