TBILISI, DFWatch — Georgia’s prime minister and president are both in Brussels these days on separate working visits.

Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili left on Sunday. He has planned to meet November 12 and 13 with the president of the Euro Commission; with Stefan Fule, Commissioner responsible for enlargement and European neighborhood policy; Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament and with Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council.

The prime minister will also meet with the Georgian diaspora in Belgium, while November 14 a meeting is scheduled with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO Secretary General.

It is Bidzina Ivanishvili’s first visit abroad as Prime Minister. In parallel, President Mikheil Saakashvili is also heading for Brussels. Currently in Prague, attending a session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, November 13-14, Saakashvili has planned to go to Brussels and meet with some of the same people Ivanishvili is meeting. The president will first hold a speech at Carnegie Center, then have bilateral meetings with Martin Schulz and Herman Van Rompuy and others.

Salome Zourabichvili, former Georgian foreign minister, writes on her Facebook page that neither Salome Samadashvili, Georgia’s Ambassador to the EU, nor Gega Mgaloblishvili, the country’s representative to NATO, met Ivanishvili at Brussels airport.

“Has our ambassador left for Prague to meet Saakashvili?” she asks. “I’m really interested, on whose invitations is the president arriving in Brussels? Who and when invited him, and does he plan to meet with EU and NATO officials in parallel with Ivanishvili’s visit?”

Zourabichvili calls the president’s visit discrediting of the country, and writes that it damages the country’s reputation.

“What can be the goal of this; only to interrupt Ivanishvili and make the country a subject of jokes.”

Zourabichvili draws attention to how the representatives of Saakashvili’s political party criticized the new government because a visit by NATO’s Georgia commission was postponed, in relation to the arrest of the chief of the general headquarters for abusing his subordinates.

“I can’t hear their reactions regarding such a scandalous action. Those who care about postponing NATO military commissions and how it will reflect on the country’s image.”