Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili stated today that Tbilisi is always ready to be the place, where “our Southern neighbors will be able to have a calm and peaceful dialogue.”
FM Darchiashvili noted that Georgia’s priority is to ensure peace and security in the region. “Due to this, our country had always tried to act as a mediator between our Southern friends,” he said.
The Foreign Minister also recollected the June 2021 deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia brokered by Georgia and the U.S., involving Baku’s release of 15 Armenian prisoners of war, as well as the meeting held in Tbilisi between Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers, noting that “it is an example of the special trust we enjoy from our friends.”
“We have no preconditions in this process,” Darchiashvili said, adding that the only suggestion is that “our country is always ready to host our neighbors, help them strengthen dialogue, and deepen this process in order to achieve peace in the region.”
The Georgian Foreign Minister made these remarks allegedly in response to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who said at a roundtable discussion held on the sidelines of the first summit of the European Political Community (EPC) currently taking place in Prague, that it is important to create a trilateral Azerbaijan-Georgia-Armenia format to ensure peace and stability in the South Caucasus.
Aliyev’s initiative, however, does not involve conflict issues. According to the Azerbaijani President’s press office, President Aliyev stressed that energy, communication, and other issues will be discussed in this format. FM Darchiashvili did not talk about these issues.
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