The Georgian Foreign Ministry said on June 27, that South Korea had agreed to refer to the country as “Georgia” instead of its Russian pronunciation “Gruzya.”

“This is of special importance for us taking into consideration the fact that number of countries, including those which are our friends, have failed so far to do so,” Nino Kalandadze, the Georgian deputy foreign minister, said on June 27, adding that Tbilisi acknowledges that switching to “Georgia” from “Gruzya” was related with technical difficulties in those countries.

She said that Tbilisi requested “many countries” to switch on using “Georgia” long time ago and Tbilisi would continue talks on the issue with those countries.

Georgia will have to negotiate the issue with over a dozen of countries, who use the Russian version of its name, among them: Bulgaria; Belarus; China; Croatia; Latvia; Lithuania; Estonia; Poland; the Czech Republic; Slovakia, Slovenia; Serbia; Hungary; Macedonia; Japan, Ukraine.