POLITICS NEWS
GEORGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER TO END LATIN
AMERICAN TOUR IN CHILE
By EMALYDIA FLENORY
THE GEORGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, TAMAR BERUCHASHVILI, WILL BE BRINGING HER SOUTH AMERICAN
TOUR TO A CLOSE IN CHILE ON JUNE 26 IN THE HOPES OF STRENGTHENING ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL
TIES, AS WELL AS PROMOTING AWARENESS OF GEORGIA.
CHILE — Berchuashvili’s three-country tour includes visits to
Argentina on June 22 and Uruguay on June 24.
With these goals set between Georgia and the EU, the next step for
Georgia is to strengthen ties outside of Europe.
One of the Georgian Foreign Minister’s goals is to sign bilateral
agreements with these three countries. This agreement will allow
citizens from these countries to visit Georgia without a visa for up
to 90 days in any 180-day period.
Civil.ge reported that Georgian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, David
Kereselidze commented on the importance of these relations.
Georgia does, however, already have a unilateral visa waiver
agreement in place with Argentina, Argentina therefore already
included on the list of over 100 countries and territories that are
welcome into Georgia visa-free.
Georgia’s outreach into South America comes after a similar waiver
that many countries within the European Union have already
signed—the Eastern Partnership
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the main objective
of the Eastern Partnership is to “create the necessary conditions
to accelerate political association and further economic integration
between the European Union and interested partner countries […]
With this aim, the Eastern Partnership will seek to support political
and socio-economic reforms of the partner countries, facilitating
approximation towards the European Union.”
“Latin America and the Caribbean represent one of the priority areas
of Georgia’s foreign policy,” Kereselidze said.
Chile has had relations with the EU since 1996. The goal of having
relations between the two nations, according to the Chilean
government website,“aims to strengthen and deepen relations with
the EU institutions (European Commission, the Council, the European
Parliament, among others) in the framework of the Association
Agreement, signed in 2002 and in force from 01 February 2003 [and
be] actively involved in the preparation and implementation of the
views of national authorities to the Community institutions.”
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