Georgian Foreign Ministry makes statement on recall of ambassadors

Georgia intends to staff its embassies with such cadres who will pursue the country's new policy, Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said.

She said that so far the Georgian Foreign Ministry has recalled only five ambassadors.

They are ambassador to the OSCE and Austria, ambassador to the U.S., ambassador to Latvia, ambassador to China and ambassador to Hungary.

"We have representative offices in 65 countries. We decided to replace ambassadors to the most important countries for us.

Firstly, the Foreign Ministry recalled ambassadors whose rotation period expired. Therefore, in these cases the question is about things that do not depend on the policy. This caused no disturbance and many of those who want to continue working in the foreign ministry or serve as ambassador to another country will have this opportunity," Panjikidze said.

She also informed journalists with the list of heads of diplomatic missions, submitted for signature to the National Security Council.

"With regard to the list of nine diplomats, this is the list that was sent to the Security Council for two reasons. There are important embassies, which should be staffed with such personnel who will pursue new policy and will not serve the national movement party interests," Panjikidze said.

Panjikidze also reported that the disseminated information on recall of 18 ambassadors is not true.

Panjikidze also said that candidates for new ambassadors are already known, but she refrained to name them.

Panjikidze also clarified that Georgian Ambassador to Ukraine Grigol Katamadze was not recalled, his rotation period expires in January. Permanent Representative of Georgia to the UN Kakha Lomaia was not recalled as well, despite the fact that he announced his intention to resign. His rotation period will expire on Feb.25.