Maia Punjikidze

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Maia Punjikidze, January 2013

Maia Pandschikidze ( Georgian მაია ფანჯიკიძე , often: Maja or Maia Panjikidze ; born October 16, 1960 in Tbilisi ) is a Georgian diplomat and politician. The former German teacher joined the Georgian diplomatic service in 1994 and was appointed Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Bidzina Ivanishvili on October 25, 2012 . She resigned from this position on November 5, 2014 .

Diplomatic career

Maia Pandschikidze was born in Tbilisi as the daughter of the writer Guram Pandschikidze . She studied philology in Tbilisi and Jena and worked as a German teacher in Tbilisi before entering the diplomatic service in 1994. The majority of her career was related to the Georgian embassy in Berlin. In 2004 she was briefly deputy foreign minister; from 2004 to 2007 she was the Georgian ambassador to Germany and from 2007 to 2010 in the Netherlands. When she was suspended from the foreign affairs service in 2010, she blamed political reasons for it: in 2008, her brother-in-law Irakli Alasania gave up his post as Georgian ambassador to Great Britain and joined the opposition to President Mikheil Saakashvili .

Political opposition

In February 2012, Punjikidze joined the opposition and became the political spokeswoman for Bidzina Ivanishvili , a billionaire businessman and founder of the Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia party , which ran against the incumbent United National Movement in the October 1, 2012 parliamentary elections. During the troubled election campaign, she acted as spokeswoman for the opposition under Ivanishvili and as head of the party headquarters.

Foreign Minister in the Ivanishvili cabinet

After her Georgian Dream party won the 2012 parliamentary elections, Punjikidze was appointed Foreign Minister in Prime Minister Ivanishvili's cabinet on October 25, 2012. In her first statements as minister, she announced that Georgia's foreign policy priorities would remain unchanged. This includes the integration of the country in Europe and the NATO area, the strategic partnership with the United States, as well as good relations with neighboring countries. Punjikidze added that the new government wanted to normalize relations with Russia. However, Georgia would not resume diplomatic relations with Russia as long as it maintains its embassies in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia .

She resigned from office on November 5, 2014 after a falling out within the government following the dismissal of Defense Minister Irakli Alassania . Her successor was Tamar Beruchashvili .

Web links

Commons : Maia Pandschikidze  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Foreign Minister resigns in concern about the European course. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 5, 2014, accessed on November 17, 2014 .
  2. ↑ a b c Georgia’s new FM to balance West and Russia ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . AFP via Expatica . October 8, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.expatica.ru
  3. ↑ a b Ex-Envoy Alleges Politics Behind Dismissal . Civil Georgia . March 16, 2012.
  4. ^ New Georgian foreign minister calls US top strategic partner during Washington visit . The Associated Press via The Washington Post . November 30, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Punjikidze, Maia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Panjikidze, Maia; Panjikidze, Maja; Punjikidze, Maja; ფანჯიკიძე, მაია (Georgian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Georgian diplomat and politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Tbilisi