Day: July 16, 2026

Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdimuhamedow is paying the first state-level visit to Georgia on July 16-17.

The visit comes amid Tbilisi’s intensified engagement with Central Asian countries. Georgian Dream government members, led by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, visted Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan over three consecutive weeks in June, while Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited Tbilisi in early July. As part of these visits, Georgia signed strategic partnership agreements with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The visit also comes amid growing attention to the Middle Corridor, a trade route connecting Asia and Europe while bypassing Russia, as well as Tbilisi’s strained relations and largely frozen ties with its traditional Western partners, including the United States, which suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia in November 2024, and the European Union.

Accompanied by a state delegation, Berdimuhamedow arrived at Tbilisi airport on July 16, where he was welcomed by Georgian Dream Defence Minister Irakli Chikovani. He was later received with an official welcoming ceremony at the Orbeliani Presidential Palace in central Tbilisi by GD-elected President Mikheil Kavelashvili.

Meeting with Kavelashvili

During a one-on-one meeting between Kavelashvili and Berdimuhamedov, the talks focused on “prospects for expanding cooperation,” particularly trade and economic relations, investments, energy, transport, and logistics, as well as “more effective utilization of the strategic potential of the Middle Corridor,” according to a press release from the presidential administration.

The sides also noted that Georgia, as a “key link” connecting Europe and Asia, is “interested in deepening transit connections, including through the future use of opportunities offered by the Black Sea ports and the Anaklia Deep Sea Port.”

They also discussed strengthening cooperation in culture, education, and science.

Kavelashvili thanked Berdimuhamedov for Turkmenistan’s support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He also noted that Berdimuhamedov’s first-ever state visit to Georgia “represents a significant stage in the development of relations between the two countries and is a clear demonstration of the strengthening of high-level political dialogue.”

More to follow…

Also Read:

• 22/04/2026 – Mikheil Kavelashvili Visits Kazakhstan
• 11/12/2025 – GD PM Kobakhidze Visits Turkmenistan
• 07/03/2025 – GD PM Kobakhidze Visits Turkmenistan
  

Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) says it is continuing to examine gifts declared by Georgian public officials. According to the organisation’s latest findings, 379 officials received gifts worth a combined 24 million lari (about $8.7m) between September 2025 and April 2026.

The report says the gifts included cash, real estate, cars, firearms and jewellery.

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili commented on the findings, accusing the organisation of manipulating the data.

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Real estate and cash gifts

According to TI Georgia, public officials most commonly receive gifts in the form of real estate.

Between September 2025 and April 2026, 100 officials received property worth more than 12 million lari (about $4.35m) in total. The gifts included 48 residential properties and 69 land plots.

During the same period, 233 officials received cash gifts worth a combined 11 million lari (about $4m). The average cash gift amounted to around 47,000 lari (about $17,000) per recipient. However, 28 officials declared cash gifts exceeding 100,000 lari (about $36,000).

The report also found that some of the cash gifts were declared in foreign currencies. Of the 11 million lari worth of cash gifts, the equivalent of 5.6 million lari (about $2.03m) was declared in US dollars, while 1.7 million lari (about $616,000) was declared in euros.

The list of declared gifts also included 28 cars and six firearms.

According to the organisation, public officials received most of the gifts from family members.

The report says parents accounted for 60.78% of the total value of the gifts, equivalent to 14.9 million lari (about $5.4m).

Officials received gifts worth 4.3 million lari (about $1.56m) from siblings, 2.4 million lari (about $870,000) from other relatives and 1.3 million lari (about $471,000) from their children.

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Interior Ministry officials received the highest-value gifts

According to the report, officials from 158 different public institutions declared gifts.

Interior Ministry employees received gifts with the highest combined value. Forty-six officials declared gifts worth a total of 2.3 million lari (about $833,000).

The Foreign Ministry ranked second, with its employees declaring gifts worth a combined 2 million lari (about $725,000).

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture came third. Nine officials from the ministry declared gifts worth a total of 1.6 million lari (about $580,000).

Who received the most valuable gifts

TI identified the 10 public officials who declared the highest-value gifts.

The list is topped by Tamar Dolidze, deputy head of the Internal Audit Department at the Foreign Ministry, who declared a gift worth 930,060 lari (about $337,000).

She is followed by Demur Sulaberidze, former chair of the Khoni Municipal Council commission, with a gift worth 900,000 lari (about $326,000).

Third is Zurab Gozalishvili, director of the Rural Development Agency, who declared a gift worth 800,000 lari (about $290,000).

The remaining officials in the top 10 are:

• Health Minister Mikheil Sarjveladze – 500,000 lari (about $181,000);
• First Deputy Defence Minister Paata Patiashvili – 446,080 lari (about $162,000);
• Deputy Foreign Minister Khatuna Totladze – 408,000 lari (about $148,000);
• Kakhaber Gavasheli, deputy head of Tbilisi’s Saburtalo district administration – 408,000 lari (about $148,000);
• Nino Mdinaradze, member of the Presidium of the State Audit Service – 389,677 lari (about $141,000);
• Sandro Tsabutashvili, former senior official at the Interior Ministry’s Patrol Police Department – 377,800 lari (about $137,000);
• Tinatin Medzmarishvili, head of the State Procurement Department at the Ministry of Regional Development – 338,750 lari (about $123,000).

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Shalva Papuashvili: “This is manipulation and a farce”

Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said the figures relate to declared gifts and that it was wrong to portray them as illicit income.

“There are tens of thousands of public officials. Adding together gifts from a husband to his wife, from a child to a parent or from a parent to a child, and presenting them as headline figures is manipulation and a farce,” Papuashvili said.

He argued that if officials had obtained money or property illegally, they would not have declared it.

“We are talking about declared gifts. If something were illegal income, no one would declare it. If it has been included in an asset declaration, how can it be illegal income?” he said.

Papuashvili also criticised TI Georgia, describing the organisation as “a tool of hybrid warfare” against the country. He said the organisation’s sources of funding should be made public and that foreign funding should be discussed transparently.

“Whoever is funding Transparency International today is waging hybrid warfare against Georgia,” Papuashvili claimed.

TI Georgia, for its part, said the research was based on information disclosed by public officials in their asset declarations. The organisation said the study aimed to identify financial interests and potential corruption risks in the public sector.

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