The current session of the UN General Assembly, which has riveted the attention of the entire international community for obvious reasons, has become a pretext for another conflict between President Giorgi Margvelashvili and Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.
The country's two top leaders are constantly arguing about "powers", but this time it came to a discussion about their participation in an international event – the session of the UN General Assembly. The State Chancellery and the presidential administration told Vestnik Kavkaza that the president and the prime minister will travel to the United States with various delegations.
This seems strange. Especially to a foreign observer. "There has to be a single delegation, otherwise it looks unusual: two delegations from the same country," the political scientist Giorgi Nodia said. In his opinion, it is not important whether the two leaders will fly in one plane, as long as they have an agreed agenda.
A rector of the Tbilisi Diplomatic Academy, Iosif Tsintsadze, told Vestnik Kavkaza that there was no case of participation of both of the two top leaders of the state in the General Assembly or events held under its auspices in New York at the same time.
"If the president and prime minister have decided to fly, they will have to fly separately simply for security reasons," Tsintsadze noted.
Vestnik Kavkaza found out that the prime minister will arrive in the US on September 25 and the president on September 27. Both delegations are numerous, so the aircraft rentals will be slightly more expensive than buying a business class ticket from Tbilisi to New York.
The diplomatic mission of Georgia to the UN is also in a rather awkward position: formally, the ambassadors are subordinate to the president, but in reality they are accountable to the prime minister. "Who would the only limousine of the Georgian ambassador have to serve during all this time?" the Georgian media asks.
With regard to the activities planned in the framework of the visit of Irakli Garibashvili and Giorgi Margvelashvili, the Prime Minister of Georgia will address the participants of the session of the UN General Assembly on October 1. In addition, his participation in several events and bilateral meetings is planned, but the exact program of the visit will be known later.
The president will visit not only New York, but also Washington.
Most interestingly, the list of future partners in the talks has not been published, as "the Georgian side couldn't agree on it yet". Apparently, the administrations of two leaders are 'dragging rope', leaving the most important and prestigious meetings to the president or prime minister. If the parties fail to agree, it could cause diplomatic scandals in the United States.
It is known that Petro Poroshenko will meet with President Margvelashvili. "But are the real decisions in the country implemented by the president, not the prime minister? They better agree on their functions once and for all," Joseph Tsintsadze said.
However, it is unlikely: 'the French model' of separation of powers, which works normally in the 'Fifth Republic', has played a cruel joke on the Caucasus country, and Georgian politicians traditionally do not like to compromise.
