President Saakashvili told reshuffled cabinet that it should lead the country “closer to Europe,” should secure peace and has to reform the armed forces in “a right direction.”
Speaking in a televised meeting of the cabinet on December 10, Saakashvili said that PM Grigol Mgaloblishvili “started work very well” and had implemented cabinet reshuffle as it was previously agreed, when he was appointed on the post in November.
“We have agreed with the Prime Minister, that after a certain period of time, we were going to fundamentally reshuffle the government, to transfuse new blood. I think that this was made now in the unprecedented scales. We have many new interesting ministers,” Saakashvili said.
He said that along with building of democratic institutions and creating new jobs, the new cabinet faced other important tasks as well.
“New appointments in the cabinet mean that we should get closer to European institutions and to Europe; secure peace in our country and carry out the process of construction and reformation of our armed forces in the right direction,” Saakashvili said.
“I am setting several criteria for the government: coordinated work; thorough and in-depth knowledge of issues and constant interaction with our people and our society,” he continued. “Significant challenges are ahead of us, but we are sure that under conditions of these criteria, we will cope with fulfilling these new tasks in an appropriate way.”
It was the first session of the reshuffled cabinet, involving nine new ministers out of total 17, who have been appointed in a period between November 1 and December 9.
One key post in the administration – Secretary of the National Security Council (NSC) – still needs to be filled. PM Mgaloblishvili said that it had already been decided that the current secretary of NSC, Alexandre Lomaia, would continue his tenure in a diplomatic service in a capacity of ambassador. It, however, is not yet clear where Lomaia will be sent to represent Georgia’s interests; UN or the United States are the most likely destinations, according to the Georgian media reports. Georgia’s UN envoy, Irakli Alasania, has resigned and ambassador to the United States, Davit Sikharulidze, has been appointed as new defense minister.
Eka Tkeshelashvili, the former foreign minister, said on December 10, that she had been offered several options to continue her tenure in the state service and that she was still in the process of consideration. She did not specify details.
It also was announced on December 10, that an influential figure within the President Saakashvili’s administration, Giga Bokeria, will retain his post of deputy foreign minister. Grigol Vashadze, the new foreign minister, asked all of his deputies and the ambassadors to file resignations immediately after his appointment on December 5. Nino Kalandadze has also retained the post of the deputy foreign minister and Davit Jalagonia has become a new deputy foreign minister in charge of Euro Integration issues.
