U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Visits Georgia

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Eric Rubin, who is visiting Georgia met on April 9 PM Bidzina Ivanishvili and Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze.

On April 12 a meeting of bilateral working group on democracy in frames of U.S.-Georgian strategic partnership charter will be held, according to the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi. It’s one of those four inter-agency bilateral groups, which were established to address priority areas of the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Charter, which was signed in January, 2009. Other areas of cooperation identified by the charter are defense and security, economic and people-to-people relations.

After meeting with the Georgian Foreign Minister, the U.S. diplomat said that he discussed “many areas” of bilateral relations, as well as Georgia’s contribution to Afghan mission and Geneva talks. Panjikidze said after the meeting that issues related to Geneva talks were among main topics of discussion.

Georgia’s incoming ambassador to the United States, Archil Gegeshidze, was also attending the meeting. Foreign Minister Panjikidze said that Georgia’s new ambassador would present credentials to President Barack Obama on April 15.

The U.S. Department of State said on Monday that Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine would visit Georgia on April 13-16. She will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Georgian Ministry of Education to expand Fulbright fellowship opportunities in Georgia.

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