The Daily Beat: 28 July
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Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili visited China, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Both leaders expressed mutual appreciation for the gradual and positive development of bilateral relations, discussed the deepening of trade and economic ties, and pledged to further bilateral friendship. Chinese President Xi Jinping also announced the upgrade of China-Georgia relations to a new – strategic partnership level – the move highly appreciated by PM Garibashvili. During the meeting, Irakli Garibashvili reaffirmed Georgia’s steady support for the One China Principle. The Georgian Prime Minister was visiting China upon the invitation of President Xi Jinping to attend the opening ceremony of the Summer World University Games.
The US Senate confirmed the appointment of Robin Dunnigan as the new US Ambassador to Georgia, replacing Kelly Degnan in this post. Robin Dunnigan is a career diplomat with the rank of Minister-Counselor, who joined the US State Department in 1992, serving at the US embassies in Vietnam, Chile, Turkey, Cuba, and El Salvador. Her most recent posting was in Vienna, where she served as Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Austria from 2018 to 2021.
President Salome Zurabishvili welcomed the peaceful protests at the port of Batumi against the Russian cruise ship that entered the Black Sea port yesterday. “Proud of our people protesting peacefully the latest Russian provocation – a Russian cruise liner visiting the Georgian port of Batumi while Putin blocks grain shipments and hinders free navigation in the Black Sea,” twitted Salome Zurabishvili. The cruise ship, carrying around 800 Russian tourists, departed earlier than planned, later in the evening of July 27; while seeing it off, protesters played the national anthems of Georgia and Ukraine.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed that another Georgian fighter was killed in Ukraine. According to the Foreign Ministry, the Georgian Embassy in Kyiv has been informed about this casualty and is carrying out the necessary procedures to repatriate the body to Georgia. This latest casualty brings the unofficial death toll of Georgian citizens killed in Ukraine to 37 since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
