Georgia’s Foreign Ministry, officials of the ruling Georgian Dream party, and pro-government media have been insisting that Germany update the country’s profile on the website of the Federal Foreign Office by reflecting incumbent government representatives “in accordance with the changes resulting from” the October 2024 parliamentary elections and the subsequent vote for president.
In particular, the call is to remove the listing of Salome Zurabishvili as president and of Ilia Darchiashvili as foreign minister and replace them with Mikheil Kavelashvili and Maka Botchorishvili, respectively. Both Botchorishvili’s appointment as a foreign minister and Kavelashvili’s election by the Georgian Dream-dominated college to succeed Zurabishvili took place after the disputed 2024 parliamentary vote and amid the GD-led government’s struggle to gain domestic and international legitimacy.
The first such request was reportedly verbally communicated on March 4, 2026, and the second, a written note, on April 9, according to documents published by the pro-government Imedi TV channel. In the written note dated April 9, the MFA said it “once again reminds the German Federal Foreign Office that on December 29, 2024, Mr. Mikheil Kavelashvili was elected by the Parliament of Georgia as President of Georgia, and that since December 1, 2024, Ms. Maka Botchorishvili has held the post of Foreign Minister,” asking the ministry to reflect the changes on its website. Pro-government journalists have mentioned “another note” by the end of April, as it remains unclear how many communications have been sent already.
As of April 2025, the German Foreign Office’s website still lists Ilia Darchiashvili as foreign minister, who was replaced by Maka Botchorishvili, and Salome Zurabishvili as president of Georgia, who was succeeded by Mikheil Kavelashvili.
For several weeks, officials and pro-government media have been actively commenting on the issue, criticizing Berlin for what they say cannot be dismissed as just a “technical error.”
“It can be said that the German Foreign Ministry has shattered the myth of German precision,” Georgian Dream Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili said on air on pro-government Rustavi 2 on April 15, adding, “Of course, we cannot be so naïve as to believe that for two years now employees of the German Foreign Ministry have been unable to correct a technical error. We cannot accept this as a technical error. It is not very difficult to correct two names. It is about the will that the German side must express to simply place correct information on its website.”
“The German administration is putting itself in a comical position when it does not even want to change formal information about the president on its website,” Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists on April 28. “This does not even require criticism. It is simply comical, what we are seeing,” he added.
Relations between Georgia and Germany remain strained, marked by repeated accusations from Georgian Dream officials against German Ambassador Peter Fischer over what they describe as his interference in Georgia’s internal affairs and violations of the Vienna Convention.
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