Georgia and UK’s Wilton Park to hold joint global events
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, October 25
The Georgian Foreign Ministry and the UK’s leading agency Wilton Park have signed a memorandum, which envisages joint organization of global and regional events on the issues in focus of the international community.
Wilton Park has been a not-for-profit executive agency of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK since 1991.
It represents an international forum for strategic discussion and organizes over 60 events annually in the UK and overseas, bringing together leading representatives from the worlds of politics, diplomacy, academia, business, civil society, the military and the media, the agency’s webpage reads.
The memorandum was signed within the Georgian-UK bilateral political dialogue, Wardrop Strategic Dialogue, in London, on October 23. The document focuses on issues such as global governance, EU and European issues, sustainable development, human rights and democracy, international security and stability, trade and investments. The memorandum entails a long-lasting partnership. Its goal is to provide innovative approaches to current issues in response to global challenges.
A traditional high-level annual meeting Wardrop Strategic Dialogue is named after Sir Oliver Wardrop, who was a strong champion of the first Republic of Georgia and the UK’s first Chief Commissioner to Georgia and South Caucasus from 1919 to 1921. Sir Oliver Wardrop had significantly contributed to the promotion of Georgian culture and literature.
On Monday, Georgian top officials arrived in the UK to attend the Georgia-UK fourth session of dialogue.
The meeting was opened by Sir Alan Duncan, Minister of State for Europe and the Americas. He stressed Britain’s support to Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations and its territorial integrity stressing Georgia and the UK have common values.
Duncan also mentioned an opportunity to enhance trade-economic relations between the UK and Georgia.
“We should ensure better bilateral cooperation with Georgia and trade relations is an important component of this cooperation,” he stressed.
