On 1 June, Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili went to Ankara where he met with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss issues of regional cooperation.
In his speech, Erdogan highlighted that Turkey has been a number one trade partner for Georgia in the past 14 years, and the economic cooperation between the countries is expected to further increase. He stated that Turkey regards Georgia as a key to regional cooperation. He also noted that Turkey regards Georgia as a key to regional cooperation.
“Irrespective of the fact that 2020 has seen a slight decline in trade volumes, we still aim to increase the trade turnover to $3 000 000 000 in the nearest future. Negotiations and consultations are also in progress towards extending a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). At the same time, we are strongly committed to increasing the trade potential and to advance cooperation between our customs administrations. Same applies to the energy sector and all other areas, which benefit of Turkish investments in the total volume of $214,000,000.000,” Erdogan highlighted.
“We have projects of great significance implemented with and in Georgia, which transform the region altogether. [The] South Gas Corridor is among such strategic projects. We created this platform on the [basis of this project]. We have initiated multilateral cooperation through interconnecting mechanisms and various combination corridors. I need to note that we have built a corridor within this scope, and it is currently labelled as the East-West Corridor connecting the Caspian Sea from the Caucasus to China through Turkey,” he added.
Besides the economic issues, regional security cooperation was also a key aspect of the Garibashvili-Erdogan discussions, particularly the issues of the Gülen movement (called the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO) by the Turkish government) and South Caucasus cooperation. “Turkey regards Georgia as a key to regional cooperation. We strongly believe [that together we] have all the means to carry out various efforts to strengthen and increase the significance and peace in our region. Within the scope of this endeavour, tripartite cooperation is very important with the engagement of Azerbaijan. Turkey supports any tripartite cooperation – be that Georgia-Azerbaijan-Armenia or Georgia-Azerbaijan-Turkey. We also made a decision to hold a high-level meeting of the strategic council any time soon this year and we instructed Foreign Affairs Ministries of Georgia and Turkey to work on the timeframe. We continue to make bold steps forward by using the available mechanisms. With this mindset, I express hopes and remain confident that our views and meeting will facilitate and develop the current relations between our nations,” Erdogan said. "We reiterate our commitment to Georgia's territorial integrity. The Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Tskhinvali) tensions should be resolved in accordance with Georgia's territorial integrity,” he added.
Garibashvili stated that Turkey has been an utterly important friendly country and strategic partner for Georgia and expressed readiness for future collaboration. “I wish to use this opportunity and publicly express my gratitude personally to you for supporting the sovereignty of our country. Also, I wish to note that Turkey has always been [supportive of] the sovereignty of Georgia and its aspiration towards NATO membership in every existing format. I also wish to echo the statement made by the President in relation to the upcoming meeting of the strategic council, which I truly look forward to. Destiny has made our three nations – Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey – interdependent. We have very strong cooperation, partnership and – what is most important – friendship. Very strong basis exists for implementing more joint projects in future both in bilateral and trilateral formats,” Garibashvili underscored.
It should be noted that the Georgian delegation to Turkey consisted of Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava, Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture Levan Davitashvili, Head of Adjara’s Government Tornike Rizhvadze, and Head of the Georgian Government’s Administration Ilia Darchiashvili.
