“It is a great honor for me to be making my first official visit as President of Georgia to the friendly Republic of Turkey, with whom Georgia shares a solid strategic partnership and multifaceted cooperation,” President Mikheil Kavelashvili declared during a joint briefing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Kavelashvili thanked his Turkish counterpart for “the exceptional and warm hospitality” extended during the visit.

“Today, during our highest-level meetings, we reviewed the active agenda of bilateral and multilateral relations between Georgia and Turkey, exchanged views on significant regional issues, and outlined perspectives for future cooperation,” the Georgian president stated.

Kavelashvili personally invited Erdoğan to visit Georgia and emphasized the importance of convening the next session of the High-Level Strategic Partnership Council.

According to Kavelashvili, Turkey ranks as Georgia’s number one trading partner, stressing the importance of boosting Georgian product exports to ensure the free trade agreement benefits both nations equally.

“Considering ongoing processes in the contemporary world, we placed special emphasis on prospects for deepening regional, trade-economic, and transport-energy cooperation,” he noted.

The meeting highlighted the Middle Corridor concept and its strategic significance, with particular attention to major infrastructure projects including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, and the Southern Gas Corridor.

“These projects give our countries’ roles and functions new dimensions in the global geopolitical arena,” Kavelashvili emphasized. “Today’s meeting confirmed how strong our political will is to deepen our strategic partnership.”