Tbilisi criticizes EU policy as Armenia and Azerbaijan invited at minister level, while Georgia only at ambassador level

The European Union is conducting foreign policy at a kindergarten level and no longer recognizes geography, failing to see Georgia’s significant position, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said, according to TASS.

The previous day, Georgia’s Foreign Ministry announced that the country would not participate in the EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Oct. 20, as Georgia was invited only at the ambassador level rather than the minister level. Meanwhile, the European External Action Service invited the foreign ministers of Central Asian and Eastern Partnership countries — including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Georgia’s Foreign Ministry called this treatment unacceptable.

“Unfortunately, Brussels’ foreign policy is at a kindergarten level. This decision already demonstrates that they not only deny the facts regarding Georgia’s economic, democratic, and institutional development from the EU’s perspective, but they also no longer see it at all — they don’t even recognize geography,” Papuashvili said.

He added that Georgia is now in a “mode of strategic patience” with the EU and criticized Brussels for harming itself through its ineffective foreign policy.