Georgia must seize the opportunity presented by the U.K.’s departure from the European Union to push its case for integration leading to membership of the bloc, according to the country’s new president.
“We are looking at this situation with the determination to get the most out of it,’’ Salome Zourabichvili said in an interview in the capital, Tbilisi. “There is a logic that the country that has been steadily moving toward and wanting Europe can’t be treated less than the country that’s steadily moving away from Europe.’’
French-born Zourabichvili, 67, said she differs from her predecessors as head of state because “I am European.” She became Georgia’s first woman president in December. Her background already “plays a role’’ in meetings with EU leaders “because I talk probably in a different way to European partners’’ than previous presidents, she said.
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Zourabichvili also explained the readiness of Georgia for acceptance.
“Militarily, we are absolutely ready,” Zourabichvili said. “If we were to get the Membership Action Plan, everybody knows that we would be ready in two months.’’
Russia recognized the breakaway regions as independent states after the war, while the international community views them as part of Georgia. Despite “everyday provocations’’ by Russian forces based in the territories, “it has not changed an inch Georgia’s determination” to seek EU and NATO membership and “if that was Russia’s intention, then it’s a big defeat,’’ Zourabichvili said.