Victor Kipiani, Chairman of Geocase spoke at the Inaugural Georgia-Oxford Forum held in hybrid format at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. The forum was organised by the Embassy of Georgia to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in collaboration with the Oxford University School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA) and Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia. This year the forum’s theme focused on “Georgia in Europe and the wider world”.
The aim of the event was to hold discussions on strategic partnership with the UK, Georgia’s path towards EU and NATO integration, regional security challenges as well as strengthening educational and cultural links between Georgia and the UK.
The forum was attended by the representatives of academia, diplomacy, politics, culture and civil society.
Sophie Katsarava, Ambassador of Georgia to the UK, Professor Tim Power, Head of Social Sciences Division, University of Oxford and Professor Christopher Gerry, Head of Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA) opened the forum addressed the audience with welcome speech.
Keynote speakers included Jonathan Djanogly, MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Georgia, Sophie Katsarava, Ambassador of Georgia to the UK, George Khelashvili, MP, Parliament of Georgia, Mark Clayton, HM Ambassador to Georgia and Victor Kipiani, Chairman of the think tank Geocase.
During his presentation Victor Kipiani touched upon new geopolitical reality established by the war in Ukraine and eventual global security challenges. As he mentioned, despite Georgia’s continuing aspiration and commitments to become a full-fledged member of NATO, since the abovementioned war is concerned, “the issue is in the box”. Considering the current circumstances and in the context of UK-Georgia cooperation, he suggested to open discussions with the strategic partners on unconventional solutions or so-called compensative modalities in order to treat the issues. Kipiani reckons that those compensative modalities could be bilateral or small alliances.
To enhance the UK and Georgian engagement, he also suggested the sides to start discussions on establishing a platform for the cooperation in the context of the Black Sea. “Let me name it, tentatively, the Black Sea Declaration, if you will, which would emphasize how essential the Black Sea Region is for the world peace and stability. But more important and specific issues that this declaration should address is to underline the importance of regional security partnership, speak on the region as on the area which is free of so-called special zones of interests, but also emphasize requirement for joint efforts for mobilizing funds to diversify regional construction and promoting socially and environmentally sustainable projects for the region,” – he stated.
In Victor Kipiani’s view, the other points that the platform or the declaration could also address are regional security threats such as terrorism, and migration related issues as well as emphasizing the importance of regional trade associations.
In the end of his presentation Victor Kipiani emphasized the significance of the United Kingdom in terms of the global Britain concept. He noted that the UK-Georgia relationship could serve as a powerful message to the region and would be an added value to that cooperation.
“Georgia is a democracy that strives to find its unique place in the Western community, and I think that those efforts should be duly and timely appreciated. Georgia punches well above its weight and greatest pain for us is not to suffer in vain and I think that its high time crystalize words and to proceed to real actions,” – Victor Kipiani concluded.
