Maia Panjikidze

Maja Panjikidze (Georgian მაია ფანჯიკიძე; born October 16, 1960 in Tbilisi ) is a Georgian diplomat and politician. The former German teacher entered the diplomatic service in 1994, Georgia and was appointed on October 25, 2012 Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Bidsina Ivanishvili.

Diplomatic career

Maja Panjikidze was born in Tbilisi, the daughter of the writer Guram Panjikidze. She studied philology at Tbilisi and Jena and worked as a German teacher in Tbilisi, before she entered the diplomatic service in 1994. The majority of her career was in relation to the Georgian Embassy in Berlin. In 2004, she was briefly Vice- Minister for Foreign Affairs; 2004-2007 she was Georgian Ambassador to Germany from 2007 to 2010 in the Netherlands. When she was suspended in 2010 by external service, she made political reasons responsible: 2008 gave her brother Irakli Alasania his post as Georgian Ambassador to the UK and joined the opposition against President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Political opposition

In February 2012, Panjikidze joined the opposition and became the spokeswoman of Bidsina Ivanishvili, a billionaire businessman and founder of the party Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia, which contested the parliamentary elections on October 1, 2012 against the incumbent United National Movement. During the troubled election campaign she served as spokesperson for the opposition under Ivanishvili and as head of the party headquarters.

Foreign Minister in the Cabinet Ivanishvili

After her party Georgian Dream won the parliamentary elections in 2012, Panjikidze was appointed on October 25, 2012 Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Ivanishvili. In their initial statements, as minister, she announced that Georgia's foreign policy priorities remained unchanged. This encompasses the country's integration into Europe and the NATO area, the strategic partnership with the United States, as well as the good relations with the neighboring states. Panjikidze added that the new government wants to normalize relations with Russia. However, Georgia would take up diplomatic relations with Russia, not again, as long as this beibehalte his messages in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.