Friends of Georgia Hold Strategy Session in Lithuania

The New Friends of Georgia group of countries conferred in an enlarged and upgraded format on September 13-14 in Vilnius. This meeting shows that a strong nucleus of eight countries has developed within the European Union and NATO (alongside the United States in the latter case), supporting an active policy by the two organizations in Europe’s East generally and toward Georgia in particular.

Initiated in 2005 in Tbilisi by the three Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria, the New Friends’ group has matured this year. Georgia’s Black Sea neighbors Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU, while the Czech Republic and Sweden have joined the New Friends of Georgia group. The meeting in Vilnius was the first held at the level of ministers of foreign affairs in full format. The EU’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus, Peter Semneby, participated as an observer, while his Swedish compatriot, Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt, brought Sweden to the table for the first time. [More]

Bulgaria Emerges as a Friend of Georgia’s

Georgian officials recently hosted an official delegation from Bulgaria. The country broke from its communist past through reforms that paved the way for NATO membership in 2004 and the European Union in 2007. Bulgaria, together with Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic, is a member of the New Group of Georgia’s Friends, a cluster of European countries which was founded in early 2005 to help Georgia with its Euro-Atlantic and European integration processes.

The Bulgarian delegation was headed by Bulgaria’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Ivailo Kalfin, who met with his Georgian counterpart, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Gela Bezhuashvili, as well as the Georgian prime minister and deputy parliamentary speaker. The delegation also included some twenty Bulgarian businessmen who came to study investment opportunities in Georgia. During this high-profile visit it became especially obvious that Bulgaria’s cooperation with and support for Georgia are developing actively in various directions. [More]