Salome Zourabichvili

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Salome Zurabishvili

Salomé Zourabichvili (სალომე ზურაბიშვილი in Georgian) (born March 18, 1952) is a Georgian politician and diplomat, former Foreign Minister of Georgia and a former diplomat in the French service.

Zourabichvili was born in Paris on March 18, 1952, into a family of Georgian political emigrants. She attended some of the most prestigious French schools, such as the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), and began a master's program at Columbia University in New York in the academic year of 1972-1973, taking courses with Zbigniew Brzezinski. She abandoned her studies and joined the French foreign service in 1974, becoming a career diplomat with jobs in Rome, the United Nations, Brussels, Washington, etc. The first time Zourabichvili visited Georgia was in 1986 during a break from her job at the French Embassy in Washington.

Salome Zourabichvili was Head of the Division of International and Strategic Issues of National Defence General Secretariat of France in 2001-2003. She was appointed the Ambassador of France to Georgia in 2003.

Mikhail Saakashvili President of Georgia nominated her as Foreign Minister in his new government and Zourabichvili was the first female to be appointed to this post in Georgia on March 18, 2004.

She was sacked by Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli late on October 19, 2005 after a series of disputes with members of Parliament [1]. She had also been heavily criticized by a number of Georgian ambassadors. Shortly before her dismissal was announced, Zourabichvili resigned from the French foreign service, which had continued to pay her a salary while she was minister, and announced that she would remain in Georgia to go into politics.

In November 2005 she set up the organization Salome Zourabichvili’s Movement. In January 2006 she announced the establishment of a new political party Georgia's Way.

Although Zourabichvili enjoys a high reputation in Georgia she has not been able to establish herself in the political field. At the city council elections in Tbilisi on October 5, 2006 only 2.77% of the constituency voted for her party. Six months before an opinion poll conducted by the Georgian weekly Kviris Palitra suggested that she would garner 23.1% of the votes at presidential elections.

Salome Zourabichvili is married to a prominent Georgian journalist and Soviet-era dissident Janri Kashia and has two children.

Beside Georgian and French, she speaks English, German, and Italian.