The Parliament Bureau has approved the heads and composition of the Georgian Parliament’s friendship groups, as presented by the Foreign Relations Committee. However, there are no representatives of the friendship groups for Lithuania, Latvia, or Estonia among them.

According to Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Baltic friendship groups were established, but no MPs volunteered to lead them.

“Parliamentary friendship groups have been established by decree. We have now announced the leaders and composition of all these groups, except for those representing the Baltic countries, as no member of Parliament volunteered to lead their respective groups. Currently, all the groups have been formed and staffed with their leaders, except for the three Baltic friendship groups, which have been created but do not yet have appointed leaders,” said Samkharadze.

Additionally, according to Parliament Chairman Shalva Papuashvili, the reluctance of Georgian Parliament members to join the friendship groups with Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia is rooted in the unfriendly policies of the parliaments of these three countries toward the Georgian people.

“We established working groups by a decree of the Parliament. Among them, a group was formed to engage with the parliaments of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia; however, so far, no members have come forward to join. This is due to the unfriendly policies of the parliaments of these three countries toward the Georgian people. We hope that the parliaments of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia will return to a more friendly stance towards Georgia, which will enable us to staff these friendship groups in the future. Our decision to create these groups was made in good faith, despite their current understaffing, given the unfriendly attitude of these parliaments. We urge the parliaments of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to restore a spirit of friendship and to cease their unfriendly actions toward Georgia,” said Papuashvili.