Zourabichvili: Nobody can think today that anything is going to be effective with today’s Putin
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, February 26
“Nobody can think today that anything is going to be effective with today’s Putin”, – President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili told the Europe Bureau of American edition POLITICO.
She stated that she aims to bring the country closer to the EU and NATO with the help of her past as a French-born Georgian diplomat.
Speaking to POLITICO she stressed on France’s participation in a European Union monitoring mission on Georgia’s border with Russia.
“There are many things that France is now doing which would not have been possible in previous years,” she said. “[Macron] was very clear about … supporting Georgia in every possible way,” the president said.
The article reads that “Zurabishvili has met President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace, on her first bilateral foreign trip as head of state. Zourabichvili was born in France and spent three decades working in its foreign service.
As Zurabishvili told POLITICO “she and Macron had agreed that mentioning Georgia in their talks with Russia was “a way to go forward” — though with no guarantee of success”.
“Nobody can think today that anything is going to be effective with today’s Putin,” she said.
Zurabishvili said she is banking on France to be her foremost ally not only because of her long affiliation with the country. “The country that is very determined to go down the road with continuing the European project is France, so we have to stick to France,” she said.
While Macron repeatedly stressed on the friendship between the two countries, he also stuck to standard French talking points, designed to avoid rocking the boat with Russia, reads the story.
“He reiterated France’s continued support for Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty — but did not say explicitly that Moscow occupies 20 percent of the country,” says POLITICO.
