New Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili

Saakashvili, who was speaking at a session of the National Security Council late on October 20, outlined the restoration of the country’s territorial integrity, pushing the issue of recognition by the international community of, as he put it, the "ethnic cleansing" of Georgians in Abkhazia in the early 90s, Georgia’s integration into Euro-Atlantic structures, accomplishment of Russian military bases’ withdrawal from Georgia as the major priorities for the new Foreign Minister.

“The main task of the Georgian State is restoration of its territorial integrity; this is the goal of my life, which will be achieved,” Saakashvili said.

“The second: Euro-Atlantic integration, which is a means to achieve our top priority [restoration of territorial integrity]. I plan to solve the issue of our membership into NATO during my first presidential term [before 2009]. Good diplomacy will allow us to solve this issue,” he stated.

“Our goal is to fully free our country from foreign military bases and sign an agreement, because an agreement is not yet signed [with Russia] and we should definitely sign this agreement, which will be based on those principles which were agreed during talks between me and [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin in May,” Saakashvili said.

But President Saakashvili did not mention ex-Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili in this respect, who signed a joint declaration with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this May over the withdrawal of the Russian military bases from Georgia. The signing of this milestone declaration is regarded as a major success for Zourabichvili during her service as Georgia’s Foreign Minister.

President Saakashvili also instructed the new Foreign Minister “to put an end to the current chaos and disorganization which is in the Foreign Ministry.”

“Never again should [we] repeat the situation when I was waiting for necessary documents to arrive from the Foreign Ministry for months… I should never hear again that there is an attempt of favoritism [in the Foreign Ministry], an attempt to create some kind of clannish system there. There should be an absolute transparent staff policy in the Foreign Ministry,” Saakashvili said.

He also criticized the ex-Foreign Minister for a failure to push the issue of “ethnic cleansing” of Georgians in Abkhazia at the international arena.

Saakashvili also said that the ex-Foreign Ministry also failed to push the issue of “permanent violent acts and very grave crimes” in breakaway South Ossetia.

“I will demand from you [referring to the new Foreign Minister] very categorically to fulfill all these issues. If you fail, I promise, you will be sacked. Because no Minister will be untouchable any more,” the President added.

Bezhuashvili was appointed as new Foreign Minister on October 20, after Prime Minister Nogaideli sacked Salome Zourabichvili a day earlier.

Gela Bezhuashvili was appointed Secretary of National Security Council, in June 2004.   Prior to this Bezhushvili served as  Defense Minister in President Saakashvili’s administration.

Gela Bezhuashvili, who graduated Ukrainian Institute of International Relations and International Law in 1991 and obtained Master of Law degree in international law at the Southern Methodist University School of Law, Dallas in 1997, served in the Georgian Foreign Ministry in 1991-2000. He also was Georgia’s Ambassador to Kazakhstan. In 2000-2003 he served as Deputy Defense Minister.