PH Envoy Meets Georgia’s Top-Rank Officials, Filipino Community In Official Visit to Tbilisi

Ambassador-designate  to Turkey Raul S. Hernandez, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Philippines to Georgia (non-resident) with Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili at the Presidential Palace in Tbilisi for the Letters of Credence presentation. (Ankara PE photo)

TBILISI 07 June 2019 — Upon the invitation of Georgia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, Ambassador-designate to Turkey Raul S. Hernandez presented his credentials as the non-resident Philippine Ambassador to Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili at the Presidential Palace in Tbilisi on 24 May 2019.

Ambassador Hernandez was accompanied by Madame Maria Ana A. Hernandez and Minister and Philippine Embassy in Ankara Consul General Enrique Voltaire Pingol.

During the visit, the Philippine envoy also had meetings with Georgia’s top-rank officials from the government and the business sector, including Deputy Foreign Minister Vakhtang Makharoblishvili, National Tourism Administration First Deputy Head Rusudan Mamatsashvili, Economy and Sustainable Development Ministry’s Trade and Development and International Economic Relations Head Tarash Papaskua, Georgian Chamber of Commerce President Nino Chikovani.

The meetings discussed the relations, particularly ways to jumpstart active cooperation in trade, investments, tourism, and people-to-people contacts following the first bilateral consultations between the Philippines and Georgia in 2011 in Manila.

Georgian officials committed towards the next round of talks in Tbilisi this year recognizing the many opportunities for closer engagement given the Philippines’ robust economic growth and key role in the ASEAN region, and the Asia-Pacific.

Ambassador Hernandez also met with the Filipinos in Georgia at the Philippine Consulate General in Tbilisi hosted by Honorary Consul General Teimuraz Chichinadze. During the meeting, the Filipinos shared their positive experience in Georgia. Most are professionals, students, and business owners.

While the number of Filipinos presently based in Georgia is less than a hundred, Philippine tourist arrivals in the country is on the rise with 21,000 Filipino visitors in 2018, mostly from the Gulf countries. On the other hand, Georgian nationals who visited the Philippines reached 6,000 last year.

On 26 May 2019, Ambassador Hernandez participated in the official celebrations of the Georgia’s Independence Day at the Freedom Square in Tbilisi and the State Dinner hosted by President Salome Zourabichvili. 

Next day, the Ambassador attended the Conference on Strong Diaspora for Unified Georgia, a yearly form organized by Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and attended by representatives of Georgian Government, diplomatic corps, international and non-governmental organizations, private sector, the academic community, and Georgians living abroad. The event aims is to ensure the diaspora’s involvement in national development. END

Ambassador Hernandez introduces his wife, Madame Maria Ana A. Hernandez to Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili during the ceremony of the presentation of the Letters of Credence. (Ankara PE photo)

Ambassador Hernandez (seventh from left) together with the nine other non-resident Ambassadors to Georgia who presented their Letters of Credence to the President of Georgia. (Ankara PE photo)

Bilateral meeting with and presentation of the open copies of the Letters of Credence to Georgian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vakhtang Makharoblishvili on 24 May 2019. (Ankara PE photo)

For more information, visit www.ankarape.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/PHinTurkey/.