Georgia Continues the Reshuffling of Diplomatic Corps

The Georgian Parliament revoked the diplomatic credentials of 9 Georgian ambassadors on June 25 as a part of reforms being carried out in Georgian diplomatic missions abroad.
 
The lawmakers revoked the credentials of the Georgian Ambassadors to Italy (Rusudan Lortkipanidze), Kazakhstan (Nugzar Duchidze), Turkey (Tariel Lebanidze) as well as the Ambassador to Turkmenistan and Afghanistan – Petre Chkheidze.
 
Grigol Katamadze, the Georgian Ambassador to Ukraine, Moldova and Romania, will continue to serve only in the Ukrain. Maia Panjikidze, formely Ambassador to Poland and Germany, will retain her ambassadorial position in Germany alone.  
 
The credentials of Gia Arsenishvili, who was Ambassador to Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic and of Georgia’s Representative in NATO, former Defense Minister Davit Tevzadze, were also revoked.  
 
Lana Gogoberidze, who was Ambassador to France and the representative at UNESCO, will take over her previous position as Georgia’s representative to the Council of Europe.

On June 23 Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili submitted a list of new Ambassador candidates to the Parliament for approval on June 23. The eight candidates, set to become Georgia’s new ambassadors are:

Gega Mgaloblishvili – Ambassador of Georgia to Turkey
Levan Asatiani – Ambassador of Georgia to Iran
Davit Aptsiauri – Ambassador of Georgia to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia
Natia Japaridze –Ambassador of Georgia to France and Representative to UNESCO
Zurab Beridze – Ambassador of Georgia to Romania and Moldova
Davit Zalkaliani –Ambassador of Georgia to Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
Zurab Shurgaia –Ambassador of Georgia to Kazakhstan
Ketevan Bagrationi – Ambassador of Georgia to the Holy See

Zourabichivili said a list of candidates for ambassadorial positions to other countries would be submitted in July.

In an interview to Civil Georgia on June 15, Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili said that reshuffling of he Foreign Ministry’s staff will also take place as a part of reforms in the ministry.

“I think that [staff] reforms will be over soon and come September we will start to work at full capacity,” Salome Zourabichvili said.