Poland supports Georgia’s EU bid: FM

He was speaking in the Georgian capital Tbilisi after talks with his counterpart Mikheil Janelidze.

Waszczykowski also said -- at a joint press conference with Janelidze -- that Poland was working to "modernise and improve" the EU’s Eastern Partnership programme to ensure that Georgia and other ex-Soviet countries beyond the bloc’s eastern border have “a prospect of full EU membership.”

He added: "We must constantly remind our friends and allies in the western part of Europe that the European project – an integrated, democratic, transformed and united Europe -- is not complete until countries such as Georgia become part of the EU.”

On Thursday, Waszczykowski held talks with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili and Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili in Tbilisi.

South Caucasus trip

Waszczykowski's stop in Tbilisi was part of a three-day trip to the South Caucasus taking in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.

While in the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Wednesday, Waszczykowski said that the European Union should maintain an "open-door" policy toward six ex-Soviet neighbours to the east. These are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

From Tbilisi, Waszczykowski on Friday headed to the Armenian capital Yerevan to meet the country’s President Serzh Sargsyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

The Eastern Partnership, an initiative by Poland and Sweden, was launched in 2009 to forge closer political and economic ties between the EU and its eastern neighbours. (gs/pk)

Source: PAP