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Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has left for Prague to participate in the five year anniversary summit of the Eastern Partnership.

According to president administration, Giorgi Margvelashvili will hold a speech at the summit on April 25.

The Eastern Partnership was established in 2009 and is an initiative by the EU to form closer relationships with the former Soviet states Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, in order to have a forum for discussions about economy and trade, travel, economic policy and strategic partnership, while avoiding the topic of membership.

It complements the EU’s Northern Dimension and the Union for the Mediterranean, but differs in that it is controlled directly by the EU Commission and has been criticized for being too top-down.

Apart from using it as an avenue for furthering trade, human rights and rule of law, the strategy document from the first summit in 2009 also states that the region is of strategic importance to the EU.