The Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced that the Georgian Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili is replaced by the Minister of Economy Giorgi Kvirikashvili.
Tbilisi Vice Mayor Dimitri Kumsishvili will be appointed as the Minister of Economy.
The head of the Center for Global Studies, Nana Devdariani, told Vestnik Kavkaza that the resignation of the Foreign Minister was quite expected and did not come as a surprise to anyone. "If you remember, immediately after the resign of Maya Panjikidze, she and Irakli Alasania made a statement that the pro-NATO, pro-Western course is changing. And, as you remember, she said her entire team will also leave. But the next day it became clear that it was only one deputy. Beruchashvili's nomination was a demonstration that this is not a consolidated process. We predicted that sooner or later a new minister would be appointed instead of Beruchashvili," she said.
According to Devdariani, no significant changes should be expected in the foreign policy of Georgia. "There will be a course to normalize relations with Russia, in general, because it wasn't developed, except the Karasin-Abashidze format. However, this is really a successful format, so it is necessary to deepen and expand it," Devdariani expressed hope.
"It is also difficult to say anything about the minister of the economy. Things are bad in the economic sphere, and it was easy to predict that this would happen," she added.
"I have nothing bad to say about Kvirikashvili. He is a good state employee. You cannot blame him personally for the situation with the economy, because it is a global process," the expert believes.
The head of the Institute of Management Strategy, Petre Mamradze, in his turn, expressed the view that the changes in the government are due to the fact that the situation in Georgia is not the best now. "I think that the 'Georgian Dream' coalition and Ivanishvili himself understand that there wouldn't be good results with such a rating and especially with such a dynamic, even using the involvement of the administrative resources," he explained.
"I personally believe that this is the wrong approach. If you look at the cabinet, there are 20 ministers, which is twice more than necessary for Georgia. It is necessary to carry out structural reforms, decentralization, to abolish Saakashvili's monopolies" the expert said.
Speaking about the appointment of Giorgi Kvirikashvili as the Foreign Minister, he said that this indicates that Kvirikashvili is known precisely as a person from the team of Ivanishvili. "I want to emphasize that I know Ivanishvili personally and I have no doubts that he has the best intentions, but unfortunately this is not the path that will bring Georgia desired results," the politician added.
But the expert expressed hope that there will be some changes in the foreign policy of the country for the better after Kvirikashvili's appointment.
