INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Archil GEGESHIDZE

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Archil Gegeshidze, Ph.D. (Geography), Senior fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (Tbilisi, Georgia)

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In 2006, Georgian foreign policy derived its immense dynamism and singleness of purpose from the previous year. The country continued to move closer to the structures of the Euro-Atlantic community while strengthening the political and economic ties in the region at the same time. In so doing, the sum total of problems being resolved remained essentially the same. They basically boiled down to achieving two main goals: a) creating an appropriate foreign policy background capable of achieving real results and rekindling the frozen conflict settlement process in Abkhazia and South Ossetia; and b) raising the level of cooperation with NATO and the EU. In addition, other tasks were solved—in particular those related to the crisis in the relations with Russia, to the implementation of regional energy and transportation projects, as well as to the increase in GUAM’s functionality. As always, special attention was focused on further advancing bilateral interaction with the country’s direct neighbors, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and other CIS states. As for contacts with the U.S., they remained strategic, largely routine, and were based on a well-oiled mechanism of consultations and coordinated decision-making. It should be noted that since strategic development policy remained essentially unchanged, the tasks for 2006 were largely similar to those of the previous year; nevertheless, the new circumstances that appeared in 2006 made it necessary to adjust the problem-solving tactics to a certain extent.

Conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia

During 2006, the main goals of the Georgian government and its foreign policy with respect to settling the conflicts in Abkhazia and…………..

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