Category: South Caucasus News
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President Salome Zurabishvili has been holding meetings with opposition figures at the Orbeliani Palace on September 11. So far she has met with Lelo representative Salome Samadashvili, opposition MP Khatia Dekanoidze (Euro-optimists parliamentary group) and representatives of Giorgi Gakharia’s ‘For Georgia’ party. According to opposition members who attended the meeting, the only issue discussed during the meetings was Georgia’s EU integration process and what steps should be taken to secure Georgia’s candidate status. After the meetings, the politicians did not give details, but revealed that President Zurabishvili had expressed her concern about the GD’s policies.
Khatia Dekanoidze, Euro-optimists: “We haven’t talked about a concrete plan, I told her I don’t support her impeachment and that in my opinion the impeachment is a part of anti-western politics and propaganda that GD is pursing. The President said that she will continue to actively campaign for Georgia’s EU integration.”
Ana Buchukuri, political party “For Georgia”: “The meeting initiative came from the President. I won’t talk about details, but we discussed how we can help our country, our European integration against the background of what GD is doing, because you know that EU candidate status is critically important for us, so that country does not find itself isolated, because that would mean staying face to face with Russia.”
Salome Samadashvili, Lelo: “The President is very concerned that on the one hand we have a historic chance and EU says their door is open.. and on the other hand we witness an open sabotage by the government. The President is discussing with various actors what can be done by society, by the people so that we don’t lose this historical chance, and so that the country receives it in spite of the GD’s sabotage.”
The President is set to continue consultations with representatives of the Georgian political spectrum.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Georgian Dream MPs have today filed an electronic complaint with the Constitutional Court. Whether or not Salome Zurabishvili has violated the Constitution is now up to the Constitutional Court, which has one month to decide. If six of the nine judges confirm that she has broken the law, parliament will vote on impeachment.
Also Read:
- 07/09/2023 – EUHR Borrell: Historic opportunity should not be missed
- 05/09/2023 – EUHR Borrell Backs Enlargement Timeline ahead of Georgia Visit
- 04/09/2023 – NGOs: Attempt to Impeach the President is an Attack on Georgia’s EU Membership Aspirations
- 01/09/2023 – EU Partners React to Announcement of Impeachment Proceedings against President
- 01/09/2023 – Georgian Dream Launches Impeachment Proceedings Against President
Washington expects U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the United States before year-end, whether at next week’s U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) or after, the State Department said on Monday.
“I’ll let the Chinese government speak to whether Wang Yi will or will not attend UNGA next week. But that said, whether it’s UNGA or whether it is after UNGA sometime before the end of the year, it is still our expectation that Secretary Blinken will host Foreign Minister Wang Yi here in the United States,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people briefed on the matter, reported last week that China is planning to dispatch Vice President Han Zheng to UNGA, instead of sending Wang Yi on a broader U.S. trip as previously signaled.
The annual gathering of world leaders comes after U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday expressed disappointment that Chinese President Xi Jinping was not attending an upcoming summit of G20 leaders in India, but added that he was going to “get to see him.”
Biden did not elaborate, but the next likely opportunity for Biden to hold talks with Xi, as the two countries seek to stabilize troubled relations, is an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco in November.
China’s top security agency has hinted that any meeting between Xi and Biden in San Francisco later this year will depend on the United States “showing sufficient sincerity.”
“As the president has said, he hopes to meet with President Xi sometime later this fall. We believe there is no substitute for one-on-one conversations at the leader level, so we will continue to work towards the possibility of that,” Miller said on Monday.
Blinken traveled to Beijing in June, where he met with Wang’s predecessor, Qin Gang, in the first visit by the top U.S. diplomat to China in five years. The U.S. State Department said then that they held “candid, substantive, and constructive” talks, and Blinken invited Qin to Washington to continue discussions.
Blinken subsequently met Wang on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Jakarta in Qin’s absence.
Three other senior U.S. officials have traveled to China for meetings after Blinken’s visit, but Chinese officials have yet to travel to the United States for talks.
Wang, 69, served as foreign minister from 2013 to 2022 as ties frayed with the United States to a point that Beijing described as an all-time low.