President Zurabishvili appeals Zelensky to return ambassador to Georgia

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has requested her Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to return Ambassador Igor Dolgov to Georgia who was recalled earlier this month for consultations following Tbilisi’s refusal to join international sanctions against Russia and a controversy over sending of Georgian volunteers to fight in Ukraine.

 

“The return of the ambassador is important for the ties between Georgia and Ukraine to become stronger in these very tragic days and become even firmer and irreversible in the future,” Zurabishvili stated during her annual speech in the state legislature earlier today.

 

She said that any dispute between Ukraine and Georgia ‘only benefits Russia.’

 

Zurabishvili also called on the Georgian Dream government to create a new format of the Security Council with the involvement of the opposition to respond to all ‘sensitive issues,’ noting that ‘it is time to declare a moratorium on hate speech in this very complicated period.’

The president also offered the creation of a State Minister’s office for European Integration which could be headed by someone from the opposition.

 

Zurabishvili said that she would coordinate the fulfillment of the requirements necessary for Georgia to receive the candidate country status for EU membership.

 

Georgia has recently requested for EU membership, shortly after Ukraine submitted the application for this during the hostilities in the county.