French President Visits Tbilisi

French President François Hollande began visit to Tbilisi Tuesday afternoon on the last leg of his three-day trip to three South Caucasus countries, which also took him to Azerbaijan and Armenia.

President Hollande will meet his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Margvelashvili, PM Irakli Garibashvili and will address the Georgian-French economic forum during his seven-hour stay in Tbilisi.

During his visit to Armenia, the French President said in an interview with RFE/RL that his visit to the region “is not aimed against anyone.” 

"Our purpose is to contribute to developing relations between Europe and independent partners,” he said.

Georgian President’s foreign policy advisor, Vano Matchavariani, said that bilateral relations and Georgia’s EU and NATO integration, as well as regional security issues, will top the agenda of talks during the French President’s visit.

Georgian PM Garibashvili met President Hollande on March 24 on the sideline of nuclear security summit in The Hague and the Georgian and French Presidents met in Vilnius in November on the sideline of the Eastern Partnership summit.

Georgian parliament speaker, Davit Usupashvili, visited Paris last week and called for Georgia’s “faster” integration into EU and NATO.