Background Discussion with Gela Bezhuashvili

Berlin, September 6, 2007

Gela Bezhuashvili, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Georgia, spoke at a Körber Foundation Background Discussion on the priorities of Georgian foreign policy.

He went into possibilities for resolving the conflicts involving Abkhazia and South Ossetia, bilateral relations with the Russian Federation, his country’s relations with NATO and the EU, and Georgia’s significance as a transit country for energy deliveries from the Caspian region to Europe.

Foreign Minister Bezhuashvili, who was on a foreign tour of Brussels, Berlin, and Washington to gain support for Georgian membership in NATO, also faced questions after his presentation from Bundestag deputies and representatives of the Foreign Office, the Federal Chancellery, and the German Defense Ministry.

This Background Discussion sets forth the Körber Foundation’s continuing interest in European foreign policy and EU policy toward its eastern neighbors, in the framework of which the Körber Foreign Policy Network last year mounted a Field Trip to Georgia and the Bergedorf Round Table met in Odessa on .

The Körber Foundation regularly invites small circles of senior Berlin foreign policy professionals to its Background Discussions . As in the Bergedorf Round Table, the discussions take place confidentially and away from public attention.