On February 5, 2014, ISET was pleased to host the German Ambassador to Georgia, H.E. Ortwin Hennig. The Ambassador gave a presentation about democracy and how a democratic country should execute internal and external politics.

After the presentation, there was a long and interesting discussion about politics and Georgia’s relations with Russia, Europe, and the US; about conflicts in the Caucasus; about the recent processes in Ukraine; and about the mistakes of Europe. Ambassador Hennig spoke to the audience from the perspective of a diplomat and also as offspring of a country that was once also partially occupied by another country.

He spoke about the attitude of the German government and its people towards East Germany and underlined that dialogue is the only path. The Ambassador restated something he previously said in one of the interviews he gave to Georgian media, pointed out that it is very naïve of the Georgians to think that because of us Europe, or the US can consider the possibility of a war against Russia. He also spoke about some differences between the new Georgian government and its predecessor, namely about their attitudes towards Europe. He announced that collaboration between Europe and Georgia will deepen, a signal of which can be seen in the fact that the foreign ministers of Germany and France will visit Georgia in the near future.

All in all, the wide range of important political topics that were discussed together with Ambassador Hennig made for an extremely interesting evening.