Wednesday, November 12 2014

SOCAR President Travels to Greece

 

Baku. On November 10, President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev left for Greece, where he held a meeting with the Prime Minister of this country Antonis Samaras.  As the press service of SOCAR said, during the meeting they discussed the implementation of the pipeline project TAP (Greece-Italy) and the question of the sale of 66% share of the Greek gas distribution company DESFA.

Recall that last week, the European Commission blocked the sale of the shares of DESFA for 400 million Euro to SOCAR. Currently Brussels addresses the issue of the admissibility of such a transaction in view of possible monopolization of the Greek market by SOCAR.

 

Danish FM to Visit Georgia

 

Tbilisi. Martin Lidegaard, the Minister of Foreign Affairs if Denmark, will pay a working visit to Georgia, on November 11.

Danish FM is expected to meet with Georgian Premier, Irakli Gharibashvili; acting First Deputy Foreign Minister, Tamar Beruchashvili.

The agreement on readmission of individuals residing without authorization, as well as the memorandum of cooperation in the energy sphere between the governments of Georgia and Denmark, will be concluded during the visit - Georgian Foreign Ministry's Press and Information Department reported.

Martin Lidegaard is also expected to meet with representatives of the civil sector and participate in the conference "Ways to Enhance Energy Security", scheduled for November 12, in the Europe House.  The conference participants will discuss the link between energy security and energy efficiency; how can energy security strengthen country's national security and decrease its vulnerability on the national and international arena; as well as share Danish experience in that regard.

Martin Lidegaard is a representative of the Radical left party. He was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark in February 2014. Before that, he used to be the Minister for Climate, Energy and Buildings. This will be his second visit to Georgia. First time he visited Georgia in April this year.

 

EU Highly Values Georgia's Contribution to EU-led Operations - Herman

 

Tbilisi. The newly appointed Defence Minister of Georgia, Mindia Janelidze, met with the Head of the EU Delegation to Georgia, Janos Herman, on November 11 - press service of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Georgia reported on Tuesday.

As the Head of the EU Delegation stated at the meeting, the EU highly valued Georgia's contribution to the missions under the EU aegis.

"The EU has a very ample cooperation with Georgia in many fields, but we also need to focus on our cooperation in the area of security policy. It is a common knowledge that the European Union signed an agreement with Georgia last year on cooperation in the Common Foreign and Security Policy and this framework agreement, as the official title says, entered into force in March this year. We highly value cooperation with Georgia in this regard," Herman said.

"During my conversation with the Defence Minister, I stated that the European Union values very much Georgia's contribution to different EU missions, in particular, in Central Africa and Mali. We will see there will be opportunities also to continue this cooperation in the future. We also shortly mentioned the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM), which is here in Georgia and which is one of the biggest in this type of missions," the Head of the EU Delegation stated.

In Herma's opinion, this is an important issue and the EUMM plays an important and useful role in providing better conditions for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

"We have discussed previous years, previous cooperation, as well as the future prospects. The EU stands ready to intensively continue partnership with Georgia, that will undoubtedly promote the development of our Armed Forces," Defence Minister Mindia Janelidze stated after the meeting.

 

RF, Georgian Diplomats Discuss Preparations for the Next Round of Geneva Discussions

 

Tbilisi. Deputy Foreign Minister, Grigory Karasin had a phone conversation with the EU Representative for South Caucasus, Herbert Zalber, to discuss the preparations for the next round of Geneva Security Discussions, scheduled for December this year - Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

"Some issues related to the upcoming round of Discussions on Security and Stability in the South Caucasus, scheduled for the first half of December, have been discussed," Russian MFA said.

Geneva Security Discussions have been convened since 2008, on the basis of the agreement reached following the Russian-Georgian conflict in August 2008, with the mediation of the EU, UN and the OSCE.  Delegations from Georgia, Russia, USA, as well as representatives from de-facto Abkhaz and South Ossetian authorities, participate in talks.

 

Georgian Premier and Kazakhstan's President to Meet in Astana

 

Tbilisi. On November 12, Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, leaves for Kazakhstan on one-day visit, where he will hold high level meetings, the Georgian Government's Administration reports on Tuesday, November 11.

"Gharibashvili will leave for Astana on Wednesday. Meetings with high rank officials of the country have been scheduled in the framework of one-day visit. Details will be reported in the evening", reads the statement.

Meanwhile, there is an announcement about Nursultan Nazarbayev's meeting with the Georgian Premier on the official site of the President of Kazakhstan.

"On November 12, President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, will meet with Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Gharibashvili", reads a statement of the site of Kazakhstan's President Administration. 

 

Tbilisi. On Tuesday, November 11, Georgian Primed Minister, Irakli Gharibashvili, met with Head of the NATO Liaison Office in Georgia, William Lahue, and discussed with him issues of cooperation, regional security and a situation  in Ukraine.

William Lahue expressed gratitude to Gharibashvili for Georgia's contribution into the International Security Assistance Force Mission in Afghanistan.

"Special focus was made on importance of the package of measures that had been approved for Georgia at the NATO Summit in Wales in September of the current year. The parties discussed implementation of the measures, envisaged by the package, and expressed hope that Georgia's defense potential and the country's security would strengthen if certain trends were implemented", the government's press- office reports.

As it was noted, the first meeting of NATO new Secretary General Jens Stoltnberg and Georgian Prime Minister will be held on November 17 in Brussels at 04.00 p.m. local time. According to the Georgian Foreign Ministry's information, the Georgian delegation, headed by Gharibashvili, will attend the first sitting of the EU-Georgia Association Council.