Georgian premier values ties with Turkey

TBILISI, Georgia

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said Monday that his country attached great importance to its ties with Turkey, a neighbor and strategical partner.

Garibashvili’s comments came at an introductory event organized by the country’s Foreign Ministry in the capital Tbilisi where Georgian foreign policy focusing on Western values and interests along with objectives of the decade were discussed.

He said Georgia and Turkey had a strategic partnership and his country placed great importance on its friendship and relations with Ankara.

According to Garibashvili, during his meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in early June, the two agreed to hold a meeting of the High-Level Strategic Coordination Council by the end of this year.

He went on to say that the main goal of Georgian foreign policy in the next decade would be to put an end to Russian occupation of some 20% of the country’s territory.

Noting that Russian occupation policies in Abkhazia and South Ossetia were still ongoing, he said ridding the areas of occupation and establishing the basis to ensure dialogue with Russia would be top topics of the foreign policy.

In his speech, the prime minister also said it was important that his country successfully continued the ongoing integration process with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union in the context of his country's foreign policy.

*Writing by Ali Murat Alhas