“Turkiye is not only a neighbouring country but also a very reliable friend of Georgia and a strategic partner for my country. I would like to thank my Turkish friends for their excellent hospitality. Thank you very much again. It’s a great pleasure for me to be part of this panel,” said Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze when addressing participants of the panel discussion “Partnership in Multi-Polar Epoch” held within the framework of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkiye, which takes place from April 11-13.
“When we talk about the multi-polarization, of course, it’s a great challenge for all of us. But at the same time, if we talk about the multipolar world, it’s also an opportunity for all the countries, including the small countries like Georgia. In this very complicated situation that exists in the world, we try our best to deepen our partnerships across the world, and we are quite successful in doing that,” he said.
According to the PM, Georgia is expanding economic partnerships and trade partnerships with different countries, and strategically, it plays an important role in connecting Europe with Asia and the West with the East.
“Georgia is a small country in the region, which has signed free-trade agreements with around 50 countries around the world. We have free-trade agreements with the European Union countries. We have free-trade agreements with CIS countries, with Turkiye, with the United Arab Emirates, and with China at the same time. Georgia was always strategically playing a very important role. We used to connect Europe with Asia and the West with the East, also economically. It’s our goal to restore this function for Georgia as much as possible. And, the only solution for that is to further deepen the economic and political partnerships with different countries across the world. That’s basically our vision.
We also have visa-free regimes, operating with around 50 countries across the world. That’s our general vision to deepen the economic operation and to strengthen also the political partnerships with different countries. We have the same vision for our region too. You know, our smaller region is also quite complex and there are existing conflicts between different countries. But Georgia always played a very positive role in terms of strengthening peace in the region, also in the South Caucasus region. All our neighboring countries I think are appreciating Georgia’s positive role in terms of deepening the cooperation and strengthening the peace around us. We also have a peaceful vision of our policies.
As to the Russian Federation, you know, around 20% of our territories are occupied by the Russian Federation, but even in this situation, we are following a very peaceful vision, a pragmatic vision. We have no diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation, but at the same time, we are pursuing a kind of intensive economic policies. We have an economic partnership and trade partnership with the Russian Federation. So that’s also part of our vision. I have to say that this vision works. Economically we are doing quite well. If we take our figures from 2021, our average economic growth, annual average economic growth since 2021 was 9.4%, which is the highest number, not only in the region but also in Europe. That’s the key aspect of our policies. We should concentrate on the economic development. We should concentrate on deepening the peace around us, and we are going to follow this policy also in the future,” he said.
