Georgian President Pays Working Visit to U.S.

President Giorgi Margvelashvili is visiting New York and Washington this week where he plans several public speeches at number of think tanks and meetings with U.S. lawmakers.

On September 27 he met representatives of the Georgian community in New York.

In New York President Margvelashvili, who declared 2015 the Year of Women, will participate in a high-level discussion on women’s rights, hosted by the Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė, who chairs the Council of Women World Leaders.

On September 29 he will deliver a lecture at the Fordham University School of Law and then will speak at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based foreign policy think tank.

He will also visit the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, where he will pay tribute to two Georgian cadets, Soso Makaridze and Bersarion Gorjoladze, who died in a car crash in New Jersey in March.

The Georgian President will then visit Washington DC where he will meet “about fifteen senators and representatives”, among them Senator John McCain, his office said.

In Washington Margvelashvili will meet heads of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, according to the Georgian president’s office. He will also visit the National Democratic Institute (NDI).

On October 1 President Margvelashvili will speak at the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars think tank.

A separate delegation from Georgia, led by PM Irakli Garibashvili, is also visiting New York this week, participating at the UN General Assembly and its side events.
 
On September 26 PM Garibashvili delivered speech at the UN sustainable development summit; he addressed Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment on September 27.

On the sideline of the UN General Assembly PM Garibashvili met President of Guyana David A. Granger; President of Togo Faure Gnassingbé, and Vice President of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.

PM Garibashvili had a brief encounter with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during which, the Georgian PM’s office said, the two had a “friendly conversation.”

In a meeting with the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, PM Garibashvili discussed bilateral relations, developments in the region, and democratic reforms, according to the Georgian PM’s office.

The PM also met Congressman Eliot Engel, a top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

Garibashvili also had a meeting with former British PM Tony Blair, whom Garibashvili has invited to visit Tbilisi, the Georgian PM’s office said.

Georgia’s Foreign Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, who is accompanying the PM at the UN, is also holding bilateral meeting on the sideline of the General Assembly.

According to the Georgian Foreign Ministry, Kvirikashvili met his counterparts from Portugal; Kyrgyzstan; Senegal; Nigeria; Sierra Leone; Ghana; Greece; Lithuania; Central African Republic; United Arab Emirates; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Norway; Serbia; Burundi; Trinidad and Tobago; Saint Lucia; Afghanistan.