Why Georgia is important

Federal Foreign Minister Baerbock travels to Tbilisi. The visit comes at an important time: last July, the EU held out the prospect of candidate status to Georgia and made it conditional on Georgia's compliance with twelve recommendations, primarily in the areas of the rule of law and the fight against corruption. The most important point related to the depolarisation of the political debate in the country, which escalated in early March with mass protests against a law on agents planned by the government. Once again, Georgians demonstrated impressively that they want to join the EU. For Europe, the country is an important ally in a complicated region surrounded by authoritarian-ruled states (Russia, Iran) and semi-authoritarian-ruled states (Turkey). Georgia is also a key country in the so-called Middle Corridor, an alternative transport link for the movement of goods between East and West that has become crucial to global supply chains as Russia has become isolated.