Georgian president pays official visit to France
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, February 19
President Salome Zourabichvili is paying an official visit to France to hold high-level meetings with President Emmanuel Macron, and President of the Senate Gérard Larcher and to discuss prospects for further advancing Georgia-France relations and priorities of Georgia’s foreign policy.
Zourabichvili started her visit by meeting with Georgian students. According to her, students living abroad and diaspora members represent an important part of Georgia and require special attention from the Government.
She was interested in the challenges they face when studying and living abroad, their expectations, and plans after returning to Georgia. She asked the students where they see themselves working, in public or private sectors, upon their return to the homeland and their views on collaboration with the government.
"I wonder how and where you see yourself after returning to Georgia. We live in the 21st century, in which a place of residence is not as important as a connection and ways to strengthen this connection to be fruitful for both parties,” she said.
During the meeting with the diaspora members, the president spoke about the importance of dual citizenship.
“Today, everyone can be a citizen of Georgia and, at the same time, a citizen of another country. This is a basic right in today's world that is accepted practice in all the European, Western, and developed countries,” she said.
The president also mentioned that they are currently working to keep the promise and simplify the restoration process of Georgian citizenship.
“Those who have been born abroad or returned to Georgia young, will gradually lose these connections if a legal connection, passport and citizenship, is absent,” President Zourabichvili said, adding that works are underway in Tbilisi to create a database for the diaspora, where its members will be able to obtain all the necessary information.
Zourabichvili believes that the Georgian diaspora should have special representatives in the Parliament, considering a large number of Georgian citizens living abroad.
"Along with competent agencies, we will work on legislative amendments that will ensure the election of Georgian citizens residing abroad to the Parliament of Georgia. A similar practice exists in European countries, namely, in Italy,” she added.
Georgian President also visited Leuville-Sur-Orge where she was hosted by Mayor Eric Braive.
She laid a wreath at the memorial of prominent Georgian political emigrants at the Leuville cemetery and honored the memory of Noe Zhordania, Chairman of the Government of the First Democratic Republic of Georgia and her parents.
President Zourabichvili also visited the Georgian Estate in Leuville. Speaking about her childhood, she emphasized that it is very exciting for her to return to Leuville as the President of Georgia.
“In childhood, I never would have thought that I would return to Leuville-Sur-Orge as the President of Georgia. Life is full of surprises,” she noted.
