- Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili
Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili ( _ka. ეკატერინე ტყეშელაშვილი) (born
May 23 ,1977 ) is a Georgian jurist, politician and (sinceMay 5 ,2008 )Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia . A graduate ofTbilisi State University , she previously practiced law and held various government posts including that of Minister of Justice and of Prosecutor General.Her first name — commonly abbreviated to Eka (ეკა) — is a Georgian form of Katherine.
Biography
Tkeshelashvili was born in
Tbilisi , the capital of then-Soviet Georgia. She graduated from the Faculty of International Law and International Relations at Tbilisi State University in 1999 and worked as a lawyer for theInternational Committee of the Red Cross , Georgia, and then for IRIS Georgia, a Tbilisi office of the University of Maryland’s Center for Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector, which she directed in 2005.Tkeshelashvili was appointed to her first government post as Deputy Minister of Interior in 2005, and then became a Chairperson of the Tbilisi
Court of Appeals from May 2006 to August 2007. She served as Minister of Justice of Georgia from August 2007 to January 2008, and Prosecutor General of Georgia from January to May 2008.Tkeshelashvili was made Minister of Foreign Affairs on
May 5 2008 . [ [http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=17764 Chief Prosecutor Becomes Foreign Minister.] "Civil Georgia".May 5 ,2008 .] Her appointment coincided with Georgia’s increasingly tense relations with its northern neighborRussia over the breakaway regions ofAbkhazia andSouth Ossetia , and Georgia’s aspiration to joinNATO . She has vowed to pursue active diplomacy to find a peaceful solution to all existing problems. [ru icon [http://www.newsgeorgia.ru/geo1/20080506/42225017.html Грузинская дипломатия должна быть активной - глава МИД.] "NewsGeorgia".May 6 2008 .]Tkeshelashvili is married and has a child.Fact|date=August 2008 In addition to her native Georgian, she speaks English, Russian, and French. [ [http://www.mfa.gov.ge/index.php?sec_id=14&lang_id=ENG Eka Tkeshelashvili biography] . Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia.]
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
