The illegitimate Prime Minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, responded to yesterday's meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, where foreign ministers from 27 countries discussed individual sanctions against Georgia and the suspension of visa-free travel for diplomatic passports. According to Kobakhidze, at least five countries opposed the imposition of sanctions.
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“I would like to thank five specific countries that expressed their support for the Georgian people at this Council. These are, as you know, Hungary, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, and Romania. They defended the interests of the Georgian people at the Council,” Kobakhidze said at a briefing today.
He noted that the Georgian government has publicly learned about these five countries but believes that “the list of countries that have opposed the sanctions is even wider.”
“We will continue consultations with all countries that support the Georgian people,” Kobakhidze stated.
Regarding the Council’s decision to begin the process of suspending the visa-free regime for holders of diplomatic passports, Irakli Kobakhidze called it an “anti-Georgian step.” He said, “It is precisely such decisions that reduce the trust of Georgian society in European structures.”
“This is just a symbolic gesture and will have no practical significance. In addition, everyone knows that
People who have diplomatic passports - whether they are politicians or ambassadors - also have non-diplomatic passports. Accordingly, they can enter European countries without a visa.
This was also confirmed by European politicians and officials themselves. Therefore, this is a symbolic act; no real privileges are being canceled by this. It is just a political gesture and another anti-Georgian decision. An ambassador is inviolable even during war, and when someone tries to impose visa restrictions on our ambassadors, for example, unlike other citizens, this is a violation of elementary principles that have been established over the centuries,” said Irakli Kobakhidze.
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas, said after the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels that there was agreement on “the need to suspend the visa-free regime for holders of diplomatic passports.” The European Commission will present a proposal in this regard later this year. As Kalas noted, at the meeting, “there was a strong desire to do more.”
Following the Council meeting, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced that he, together with his Slovak counterpart, had vetoed the inclusion of some senior Georgian police officials on the sanctions list.
