2021-07-10
Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia:
"Let me greet you all!
I greet and welcome our honorable guest - Minister of External Affairs of the Republic of India.
Visit today is a historic one. It is the first visit made by the Foreign Affairs Minister of India to our country. Minister has arrived in Tbilisi with a tremendous mission. With a decision of the Prime Minister of India, sacred relics of St. Queen Ketevan found during excavations in the ruins of a St. Augustine Monastery in Goa have been handed over to Georgia for permanent ownership.
On behalf of the Government and people of Georgia, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to you, Mr. Minister, your Prime Minister, your Government and people of India. This fact is utterly important for us, our people and our Church. We highly value it. We believe that this day will be further defining our cooperation and friendship between our nations and governments.
I wish to note that Georgia is among those countries that marked 150th Anniversary of one of the greatest, truly outstanding visionaries of the world, the greatest public figure - Mahatma Gandhi with a number of events in 2018-2020. We will be unveiling a monument to him, thus vividly evidencing our respect and friendship.
I wish to note with satisfaction that we have excellent cooperation, both in politics, as well as in trade and economic fields. And this interaction is advancing every year. Several thousand students come to Tbilisi from India to acquire knowledge, which is utterly important for us.
We discussed a wide range of future cooperation at the meeting, inter alia in such sectors as trade and economy. Overall, we defined our new plans and goals on how to use the location of Georgia in a more prudent manner and make interesting offers to Indian investors. I also wish to note that significant, very serious investors have already gained exposure to our country and made investments in several hundred millions of dollars. Of course, we welcome their exposure to our country and will be offering more interesting terms and conditions to them.
We, of course, spoke about the investment climate in broad terms, touching on the cooperation through air, marine and land transportation.
Naturally, we talked about COVID-19 pandemic at the meeting, along with the negative consequences caused by the pandemic. Every country is affected by the pandemic and cooperation towards this end is essential.
Also, I wish to note in closing that I believe that the visit today will serve as a start of a very strong cooperation and friendship in future. On behalf of the Government and people of Georgia, I wish to one again thank you for carrying out this truly extraordinary mission.
Thank you!"
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of the Republic of India:
"Thank you, Prime Minister!
Our friends from the media!
Let me begin by saying that I am truly pleased to be here today. I know that I am the first Indian Foreign Minister to visit Georgia after its independence, but I come here in a sense with a sacred purpose and we have, as you all know, kept and preserved a very valuable heritage of Georgia for many years - Holy relics of St. Queen Ketevan - and there has been obviously understandable interest in Georgia for the relics to be permanently transferred, given the fact that Holy Martyr is regarded with so much reverence in your society.
In view of our very close friendship and understanding the importance of faith, Prime Minister Modi decided to gift one part of the holy relic to the Georgian people. It was my honor and privilege to personally carry it and I, of course, look forward to the ceremony today at the Sameba Holy Trinity Cathedral for the handing-over of the holy relic in the presence of His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II - the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.
We had, Prime Minister, very good discussions as I did earlier with many of your cabinet colleagues, especially with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and we have very comprehensively discussed our bilateral cooperation. I think there is a lot that we can be satisfied about. There has been a significant Indian Investment here. There are 8000 Indian students, who study in Georgia. There are more than 50 000 Indian tourists who come here.
I was very impressed to see actually that some of our well-known movies have been shot in Georgia. But we agreed that for all the progress that we have made potential is there and that potential will only be realized if our two governments make a focused effort to do so. And I look forward to working with you and your cabinet colleagues in that regard.
We also had a discussion on connectivity, as you noted, because today connectivity is very much key to competitiveness; it is key to reliability and resilience in a globalized world. And whether it is land, maritime or air connectivity, I think it is great that we have a mutual interest to promote it and to do so expeditiously.
I particularly want to thank you, Prime Minister, for the care that you have taken of the Indian student community. These have been two very difficult years, so we know that you went an extra mile to look after our students and in many cases helped them come back home and then to come back to Georgia for their studies. I do want on their behalf to really convey our appreciation.
As you noted, there are big Indian investments and projects in Georgia in the hydro electricity sector and steel sector and the power transmission sector. I also understood that even in agriculture, there are Indians who have invested here. But I think that a lot of that is a reflection on your accord of making it easier to do business. I really applaud your ranking. I am sure that if there was a wider appreciation of that in India, you would see an even more enthusiastic Indian business interest in Georgia. We would very much welcome working together on the investment and trade side.
And in turn I would also mention to you that in India we have today new projects and schemes to encourage more manufacturing. We hope that Georgian companies looking out at Asia could consider that as well.
As Foreign Minister, it would also be right for me to recognize the strong and consistent support that we have received from Georgia in the United Nations and other multilateral forums, including our election to the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member.
So, overall, I would say that we have had a very good discussion on regional issues. I leave with a much better understanding from the insights that you and your colleagues have given me. And I think of a very fitting event, which we would be having today is exactly what you spoke about, Prime Minister, about the installation of a statue to Mahatma Gandhi in Tbilisi. I am very grateful to your government and to the city of Tbilisi for doing that, because I treat it in a way as a culmination of a 150th Anniversary Celebration of Mahatma. So, all in all, I am very confident that my visit - my discussions - have helped to start on a more ambitious roadmap for our relationship and I, of course, look forward to calling on the President during the day, but once again I thank you.
I convey to you publicly, as I did in the meeting, the greetings of the Prime Minister and I carry back your message to the Prime Minister. I certainly consider it a very, very deep honor today to be associated with events, which are so important for your society and for your culture.
Thank you very much!"