CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VIII (1) ContemporaryEurasia81 | Page 64

IMPERATIVES OF GEORGIAN DIPLOMACY AND COOPERATION OF TBILISI AND…
confrontations. Integration strategies should be based on a pragmatic policy
of the realization of national interests.
The Georgian choice of foreign policy is based on finding not only a
reliable partner and faithful ally, but also to some extent a defender and
patron. Given the problems and challenges that the European Union has
faced in recent years, it may not have made enough effort to convince
Georgia to become part of the European community. After winning the
elections in October 2012, the coalition, “Georgian Dream”, came to power,
clearly recognizing the need for a balanced foreign policy to ensure the
security of the state. The main priorities of the forces united around B.
Ivanishvili were: the reassessment of the results left over from the previous
government in the field of economics, finance, foreign policy and
management, the formation of a new political and economic elite capable of
making rational decisions, and revising the policy of the previous leadership,
which adhered to a radical pro-Western course and considered only the US
and the European Union as main strategic allies.
Imperatives of Georgian Diplomacy in UncertainTimes
On the eve of the NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008, the
former president, M. Saakashvili, stated confidently, “When we speak about
the European future of Georgia, we must understand that this is not only
today’s choice <...> European and Georgian civilizations are so intertwined
that it is difficult to determine whether Europe is our roots or on the
contrary”. 1 In his message to the Parliament of Georgia, Foreign Minister G.
Bezhuashvili noted that the main strategy of the foreign policy of this
country in the 2000s would be aimed at “turning Georgia into a European
State with strong institutions, fully integrated into European and Euro-
Atlantic structures”. 2 After the changing of the guard at the presidential
palace in Tbilisi, no rebuttal followed against the declared route under the
leadership of the current head of the country, Salome Zurabishvili.
Moreover, in frame of «Eastern Partnership» Georgia, as we know, the only
South Caucasian state to recently sign an association agreement with the EU.
As you can clearly see, it was decided to consider Georgia first and foremost
a European country (and hence not a post-Soviet state). They wanted not
only to dissociate themselves from any Soviet legacy as soon as possible, but
also from the failed project of the 1990s – the “Shevardnadze era”. Thus, the
basic concept of modern Georgian state ideology is known as the
“Westernization” of the country, and this promise is mainly opposed to the
1
Thomas De Waal, “Georgia's Choices: Charting a Future in Uncertain Times” (Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C., 2011): 31.
2
“Foreign Policy Strategy 2006-2009”, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, http://www.mfa.gov.
ge/index.php?lang_id=GEO&sec_id=562 (accessed June 15, 2015).
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