Tbilisi, Georgia, Nov. 27
By Nana Kirtzkhalia - Trend:
A Georgian governmental delegation headed by President Giorgi Margvelashvili will attend the Eastern Partnership summit in Lithuania on November 27.
Spokesperson for the presidential administration Tinatin Mzhavanadze told Trend that an association agreement is planned to be initialled between Georgia and the EU during the Eastern Partnership summit, to be held in Vilnius on November 28-29.
According to diplomatic practice, this means the preliminary signing of an international treaty with the individuals involved in its preparation.
Advisor to the Georgian president and Secretary for Foreign Affairs Vano Machavariani told the media that President Margvelashvili will meet with his French counterpart, as well as other representatives of Georgia's partner-countries within the summit.
"A meeting between Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili and French President Francois Hollande, which is to be held at the initiative of the French president, is important," Machavariani said. "It is important that France expresses its support for the European integration of Georgia. The meetings will be held with representatives of partner countries such as Poland, Estonia and Latvia in multilateral and bilateral formats."
The summit will be held in the LITEXPO exhibition hall. The association agreement will be initialled with the EU at the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry on November 29. After initialling the document on association with the EU, it is planned to be signed in September 2014.
The Eastern Partnership envisages the political and economic rapprochement of six post-Soviet countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus with the EU. The programme proposed by the EU on the initiative of Poland and Sweden, was officially launched in Prague on May 7, 2009.