Georgia-Italy Relations: Riding on the Strength of the Successful Collaborations Among Our Citizens

The nation of Italy shares many common grounds with Georgia and is home to many Georgian immigrants. Many Georgians took Italy as home due to the friendship expressed by Italians in troubled times.

In this interview with Mr. Konstantine Surguladze, Ambassador of Georgia to Italy, he stressed on the growth and strengths among both countries necessitated by the collaboration among their citizens to deepen business, tourism and other bilateral relations.

Surguladze also identified important areas of collaboration and the prospects they hold for further strengthening the relationship among both nations.

Your appointment as the Ambassador of Georgia to Italy is nearing it’s first year, how would you describe the months you’ve spent in this position?

You are absolutely correct. In a few months from now, my appointment as Ambassador of Georgia to Italy will reach it’s first year mark. The period since assuming the position has been very busy both in terms of work and for me personally and emotionally. Although I have been to Italy many times before my appointment, an entirely different reality sets in when you start living in the country. At the time of my arrival, Italy was the chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), so at the very first stage of my appointment, the OSCE Ministerial council was the largest political event of its kind. During these few months, I made several regional visits, the first of which took place in the Puglia region, where most Georgians live and work.

My next regional visit was to Sicily, which is also a very important region for us, because of the special friendship and closeness it shares with Georgia. This special friendship is due to the many years of support that families in this region have shown to children displaced first by the horrific events in Abkhazia and the 2008 war. I very much appreciated the warm gesture as I am sure Georgia does too. The amazing actions I saw in Sicily are a practical demonstration of love.

As a result, hundreds of Georgian children, through the “memories of the Sicilians,” have found the hardest days of their lives easier and clearer. Many of them are still in close contact with these families, and naturally, I wanted to personally express the great gratitude the Georgian people have to them.

I also recently visited the Lombardy region, where I met with the President of Lombardy and other government officials. Lombardy, as you know, is one of the richest and economically powerful regions of Italy, so a deepening of economic and trade relations was the focus of the meeting. Specific steps have already been taken during these visits, and I hope that they will yield tangible results soon.

What is the main objective that you would like to achieve during your mission?

I would be happy to see more Italians becoming familiar and endeared to my homeland at the expiration of my mandate. For most Italians, Georgia will be a country known for Rustaveli, Pirosmani, unique alphabet, amazing wine, centuries-old history and traditions. My main task, of course, is to strengthen political relations, to further deepen and consolidate bilateral relations in various sectors.

How do you generally evaluate Italy-Georgia relations and where do you see the prospect of deepening these relations?

Italy-Georgia relations are dynamic and friendly. The dynamics surrounding the relationship has grown especially in recent years, especially in the area of supporting Georgia’s European aspirations where Italy moved from the group of “neutral” countries to the group of “supporting countries”. This has been well demonstrated, even with the ratification of the EU Association Agreement with Georgia by both chambers of the Italian Parliament in an unprecedentedly short time for Italian practice. A positive attitude was also reflected with the unconditional support of Georgia for granting visa-free regime within the Schengen zone. This positive outlook has also been demonstrated by several high-level bilateral visits (since Georgia’s independence, the Italian Republic President Sergio Matarela, visited Georgia officially in 2018), large-scale business-forums organized, both in Italy and Georgia.

Italy has been a staunch supporter of Georgia in its policy of non-recognition of Georgia’s occupied regions. This is reflected in the statements of the authorities, as well as in the support of resolutions, recommendations of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the European Union and other important documents concerning Georgia. Italy finances the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) monitors whose presence on the occupation line is very important for Georgia.

There are also positive dynamics in the area of economic and cultural relations and in other areas, but there is clearly a potential for further intensification of these growing dynamics.

We are also actively working with each region of Italy, according to their specifics, to raise awareness of Georgia and deepen interest in economic, political, cultural and educational areas.

It is of utmost importance that we make the positive dynamics of these bilateral relations stable, irreversible and not dependent on various foreign or domestic political and economic challenges. To do this, Georgia needs to be a reliable partner in Italy’s stateowned political and economic projects. For example, TANAP and TAP (Trans-Anatolian and Trans-Adriatic Natural Gas Pipelines) projects, diversified transit roads, ports, pipelines, etc., are important to create, develop, and strengthen bilateral trade and to make full use of the potential in this area. Cooperation in these areas requires constant and intensive efforts, on which we work productively.

How much do Italians know about Georgia and what kind of activities are lined up to promote Georgia?

Many Italians know Georgia, many are in fact, getting to know and loving Georgia more. This is also largely merited to those Georgian immigrants who try to introduce their country’s culture and traditions daily. During my stay here we have organized several cultural events. The biggest scale event was during the days we organized about the Georgian cinema, in Rome’s most important cinema area - the Cinema House, located in the historic center of Rome, in Villa Borghese. In addition to classic Georgian films, we also presented contemporary films at the festival. It was especially interesting on the closing day of the festival, where we presented Kote Mikaberidze’s genius silent movie “My Grandmother”, with live accompaniment by Rezo Kiknadze’s trio. With our patronage, an exhibition of David Luashvili’s icons was held, as well as a meeting with the poet Giorgi Lobzhanidze, in Rome. In Perugia, with our patronage was held a concert by the Ensemble Basiani, which was a huge success. It was also important for us to organize a presentation of the Georgian historian and scholar, prof. Gaga Shurgaia’s book, Vakhtang Gorgasali – King of Karli, at the Italian National Library. The event was well attended by many prominent persons in academic circles. Together with the Sommelier Society of Rome and the Georgian Wine Agency, we held tasting of Qvevri wines and this was attended by about 100 professional Sommeliers and wine journalists. Alongside our culture, wine is also our calling card and an important tradition. With the help of the Ministry of Agriculture in the town of Velletri, near Rome, Georgia was the host country at one of the prestigious wine festivals “Everyone Down in the Cellar”, and we had our special stand where we were able to introduce our guests to the tourist opportunities besides wine. An important event is also planned in November, within the framework of the Sacramento 2019 festival, which is dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the L’Aquila earthquake. Our opera orchestra and baritone singer Giorgi Andghuladze will take part in it. We also plan on presenting an Italian language translation of Giorgi Kekelidze’s ”Thoma’s Tales” at the Rome Literature House. We are all very happy and looking forward to the December tour of the Sukhishvili ensebmble in various Italian cities.

Sometimes, when due to our scarce budget, we cannot financially organize or support some of them, we always try to get involved in organizational matters and still make a contribution. We want to organize a large-scale cultural event in Palermo to express our gratitude for that great and noble friendship. This idea is still being developed, but we will try our best to make it a reality.

The number of direct flights between Italy and Georgia has increased, how will this contribute to the attraction of more tourists from Italy under these conditions?

We are very excited by the recent increase of the number of direct flights between Italy and Georgia. In addition to Bologna-Tbilisi, which is operated by Airzena, Wizzair operates Milan-Kutaisi, Rome-Kutaisi and Bari-Kutaisi flights. Ryanair has also added flights from Bergamo-Tbilisi, Kutaisi-Bologna. A few more flights are being planned. It is of course very important to attract more Italian tourists to visit Georgia. We actively cooperate with the Georgian Tourism Agency, especially in organizing press tours and conducting information visits to individual journalists who write about Georgia in leading publications. In addition to the Tourism Agency, the Embassy has organized a number of presentation events for tour operators and journalists working in the field.

How do you evaluate business relationships? Are there any interest expressed among Georgian businessmen willing to enter the Italian market, and how do you raise interest among Italian companies to invest in Georgia? Please tell us some specific examples of success if there are.

As you know, the economic relations between Georgia and the EU countries became especially intense after the signing of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DACFTA) Agreement with the EU. The agreement allowed Georgian companies to enter the EU market to produce their own products in one or another country. Of course, this also applies to Italy, with which Georgia has a long and fruitful relationship. As you know, many large Italian companies operate in Georgia and their field of activity is quite diverse. Will it be agriculture, infrastructure, construction, etc.? Not to mention, the world’s famous Ferrero company, which uses Georgian nuts for its products and is one of the largest agricultural investors in Georgia. Also, in terms of infrastructure projects, we have to mention one of the largest Italian company Salini Impregilo, which currently constructs the Nenskra hydroelectric power station and so on.

It should be noted that many Georgian companies successfully cooperate with Italian companies. Georgian businessmen often arrive in Italy for business visits. I would like to emphasize that in the Italian city of Bari, which is home to many of our compatriots in Italy, we have Georgian wine shop “Khareba” and as we know, Georgian wines are enjoyed here by both Georgians and Italians with great pleasure.

We are obviously working towards intensifying business relations between Georgia and Italy. We hold meetings with various Chambers of Commerce and Industry in various regions of Italy to discuss Georgia’s investment environment, tourism potential, business relationships, foreign trade, Georgia’s international ranking, tax system and other important topics. We are trying to introduce them to Georgia with all its sights and to get them interested in doing business. We invite Italian businessmen to attend various forums and exhibitions. Of course, we provide information on tenders and auctions in various fields in Georgia too amongst other things. In addition to these, we assist as much as possible within our competence to connect Georgian and Italian companies to establish partnership relations between them.

I would also like to note that in 2017, Italy hosted a Georgian-Italian business forum with over 200 businessmen from both countries participating. In 2019, Tbilisi hosted the same forum.

Lastly, as a former Minister of Diaspora, I would like to ask you about Georgians in Italy, what the Georgian Diaspora is like and what message do you want to send to them. It is also worth noting that prior to Italy you were Georgia’s ambassador to the Netherlands where the problem of illegal Georgian migrants is not as severe as in Italy, how do you rate this problem?

Naturally, there are more Georgians in Italy and you are right, there are more irregular citizens than in the Netherlands. This is, of course, the result of the differing specificities and immigration policies of these countries. There are also different traditions and beliefs that the Italians and Dutch have. Georgians, by their nature and temperament, find much common ground with the Italians, and therefore adapt more easily here. Not to mention those specific immigration regulations that result in a very small number of irregular migrants in the Netherlands. In Italy, these approaches are much more tolerant, and therefore it reflects on numbers. Unfortunately, living illegally in a foreign country has many problems. It is important for immigrants to have comprehensive information on different types of services and procedures, or simply on the rights they need at the first or next stage of life abroad, to avoid risks. Compared to the Netherlands, Italy is also bigger in territorial size, with citizens often having difficulty arriving in Rome to obtain consular services from other Italian cities. Unfortunately, they often have the false information that if they do not have legal status they will not get services in the consulate and they turn to private Georgian associations for help. Unfortunately, some of them abuse and often mislead these citizens.

I would like to tell every citizen of Georgia who is in Italy that the door of the Georgian Embassy and Consulate is open to all Georgian citizens, regardless of whether they are legally resident in Italy or not. Consular services are provided equally to all Georgian citizens, regardless of their status. Moreover, our consular staff often makes field trips to different cities to serve citizens so that they can avoid the long trips, additional costs and day offs. I am very glad, and I want to let them know that soon in Bari, where the Georgian Diaspora is concentrated most, a consulate office will be opened that will serve Georgians living in southern Italy to ease their current difficult situation. The role of the diaspora in the socio-economic development of the country is most significant. The role of the Georgian diaspora in public diplomacy is also invaluable. Georgians abroad, through their work, contribute not only to the development of their host countries, but also contribute to the promotion of Georgia abroad and its positive image. Consequently, successful Georgians with high professionalism, wide scale and prominence abroad share a positive image of the country abroad. I’m glad that there are so many successful and respected Georgians in Italy.