The Parliament confirmed on May 1 several new ambassadorial nominations including to Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Turkey and the Council of Europe.

Georgia’s former ambassador to Latvia, Konstantine Korkelia, was confirmed as a permanent representative to the Council of Europe.
 
Irakli Koplatadze, charge d’affaires to Ireland, who served as deputy chief of mission in Ankara, was approved as Georgia’s ambassador to Turkey, replacing Zurab Pataradze. The latter was confirmed as the ambassador to Kazakhstan.   

Teimuraz Sharashenidze, who has been Georgia’s ambassador to Azerbaijani since early 2011, has been re-confirmed on the same post.

Khatuna Salukvadze, who formerly was the head of the political department at the Foreign Ministry, has been confirmed as ambassador to Lithuania.

Ambassadorial nominations were also supported by the UNM parliamentary minority group and confirmed unanimously by the Parliament.

Also on May 1 the Parliament approved with its second reading amendment to the law on diplomatic service, which sets a ten-day deadline within which the President should sign appointment of new ambassadors confirmed by the Parliament; initial draft was setting a two-week deadline. The amendment was introduced by the Georgian Dream (GD) coalition after GD accused the President in February of dragging out approval of nine new ambassadors; the President signed appointments almost one month after those nine ambassadorial nominations were confirmed by the Parliament.