Georgian President: “We'd be happy to take their place”

Georgian President: “We
# 15 May 2019 14:47 (UTC +04:00)

Georgia has made a tongue-in-cheek bid to take the United Kingdom’s place at Europe’s top table. The country’s pro-EU president, Salome Zourabichvili, was speaking at the European elections debate in Paris on Tuesday, ONA reports citing Euronews.

“One thing we do not understand is what Great Britain is doing [on Brexit]. We will be very happy to take the place left by them”, she said.

While other countries on the fringes of the EU are a battleground for influence between Brussels and Moscow, Georgia is a bit different. A conflict a decade ago with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia helped to put Tbilisi on a path to EU membership. It signed an association agreement with Brussels in 2014 but is yet to request full membership.

"We are in a world where there are many problems. But our answer to the many challenges — and we are living all these challenges even closer than most European countries — our answer to these challenges is to be closer, and to be in Europe. Despite Russia, despite the fact that there was a candidate that was an ex-Russian candidate that was facing me [in Georgia's late 2018 presidential election] Georgia has chosen Europe," noted Zourabichvili.

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