The President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, addressed the Georgian diplomats at the opening ceremony of the Ambassadors’ Conference 2020, the annual meeting of the heads of Georgian diplomatic missions abroad.

At the conference, which is being held online due to the pandemic, the President spoke about the challenges for Georgia, and the role of diplomats in these processes. Salome Zourabichvili also addressed the challenges posed by the pandemic.

According to the President, the pandemic pushed everyone to think in a new way, to look for new solutions.

“The pandemic has changed many things, but it has not changed the main challenges for Georgia, and we cannot forget these challenges,” Salome Zourabichvili declared about the occupied Georgian territories.

The President also touched upon the Karabakh conflict. She called it the second very big challenge this year.

“Once again, I want to salute what I have saluted before, the restoration of peace, which is vital to us, and not just to our neighbors, to all three of us. The prosperity and development of the whole region depend on peace and stability. At the same time, we know that everyone was involved in achieving this goal, all the facilitators, except for us. It is very sad. The historical role of Georgia in the Caucasus has always been and still is an opportunity to bring everyone together. That is why I am deeply convinced that Georgia can be neither passive nor secondary to the initiative of the Caucasus Platform,” Salome Zourabichvili said.

The President thanked Georgian diplomats, representatives of the Diaspora, and communities for their service during this challenging period.