SOCIETY 378

Georgia and the EU –
a reciprocal exchange
The Ambassador of Georgia, H.E. Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, spoke
with SOCIETY about the ties between Georgia and Austria
and the country’s approximation to the European Union.
You are here in Austria since July
2020 and it is your first post as an
Ambassador. What are your expectations
and goals for your term?
Despite the very difficult situation
we globally have, I mean the Covid-19
pandemic, I hope that we will take the
relations between Georgia and Austria
forward. The Embassy of Austria was
established in Georgia in 2016 and
especially afterwards our relation
started to grow. We had a lot of good
ambassadors in Vienna and I really
want to build on to this legacy. My
mandate also involves the presentation
in OSCE, UN and other international
organizations. All I really want is
to represent Georgia in the best light
and to develop these relations as they
should be. Some may not know, but
we have a very symbolic, historic and
prominent person that connects our
nations - the Austrian Lady Bertha von
Suttner - who was the first woman to
win a Noble Peace Prize. She used to
live with her husband in Zugdidi, a city
located in the West, only few kilometres
away from the occupied zone of
Abkhazia. 20% of Georgian territory is
occupied by Russia. One of Suttner’s
most prominent books is called “Die
Waffen nieder” which advocates world
peace. For Georgia as a nation which
is still searching for peace and whose
fight for freedom is not yet over, this
book delivers a very important mes-
Fotos: SOCIETY/Karakan
NEW AMBASSADORS
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