Tedo JaparidzeTBILISI, DFWatch–Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has appointed veteran diplomat and former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in Georgia’s Parliament Tedo Japaridze as foreign affairs advisor.

Japaridze served as foreign minister in 2003 to 2004, after the Rose Revolution which brought Eduard Shevardnadze’s presidency to an end. From 1994 to 2002 he served as Georgian ambassador to the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Japaridze was the Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Scholar in Washington between 2006 and 2007 and has since held various posts, among others as the President of the Energy Security Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan and the Secretary General of the Istanbul-based Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation in Turkey.

In 2011, Japaridze was dismissed from the Georgian diplomatic service as he joined Georgian Dream, a coalition founded by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili which won the parliamentary elections in 2012. The party with the same name secured a majority in the legislature in the October 8 elections this year.