Zviad Kvatchantiradze (; born 7 July 1965, Ozurgeti) is a Georgian parliamentarian and diplomat. He has served as Chairman of the EU-Georgia Parliamentary Committee on Association, first Vice Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Parliament of Georgia, leader of the Majority Party, and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). He was formerly Consul General of Georgia in Istanbul, Turkey, from 2005-2009 and Secretary-General of the TRACECA Intergovernmental Commission from 2000 to 2004. He holds a rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary since 2001.

Education Kvatchantiradze obtained a degree in history from the Faculty of History and Law of the State University in Yaroslavl, Russia in 1990. He received a diploma in Social Market Economy and Public Relations from Carl Duisberg College in Cologne, Germany in 1995.

Career

Early career

From 1991 to 1993, Kvatchantiradze was the manager of the academic interchange program at the Georgian branch of the ICSC-World Laboratory, an international non-governmental organisation in Tbilisi.

In 1993 Kvatchantiradze was among the pioneers of public relations in Georgia and co-founded the Tbilisi Public Relations Centre (TPRC), the first PR company in Georgia. The same year, under the leadership of conductor Jansug Kakhidze, he helped to found the Georgian Society of Patrons of Music. As co-president of the society he contributed to founding the .

In January 1994 Kvatchantiradze won Germany's Carl Duisberg scholarship and moved to Cologne to study. After graduating from Carl Duisberg College, he worked in a professional practice in Germany, where his responsibilities included activity in the German Foreign Office in Bonn.

In March 1996, Kvatchantiradze returned to Georgia and joined the civil service as a State Advisor in the State Chancellery of the President of Georgia. He also served as director of the Department of European Integration and International Relations of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. From 1997 to 2000 he was a member of the Committee of Deputies in the European Conference of the Ministers of Transport (renamed in 2007 to the International Transport Forum), as well as a member of the Inland Transport Committee of the UN ECE.

Diplomat

In 2000 Kvatchantiradze was elected a first Secretary-General of the Permanent Secretariat of the newly established intergovernmental organisation, Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA), based in Baku, Azerbaijan. He personally contributed to its establishment. In 2002-2004 he also was a President of the Caspian International Club of Transport and Communications. In 2004 he returned to Tbilisi, Georgia and reentered the Georgian foreign service as Head of the Directorate for the Council of Europe in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. In 2005 Kvatchantiradze was appointed Consul General of Georgia to Turkey.

In politics and Parliament Before joining politics, Kvatchantiradze had been the Chairman-in-office of the board of the Georgian Quality Foundation since February 2010. In April 2012, he was a founding member of the major oppositional political party Georgian Dream alongside Bidzina Ivanishvili.

In the elections, Kvatchantiradze won the district 60 Ozurgeti seat.

On 3 October, Kvatchantiradze was elected a First Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations and a member of the European Integration Committee. In June 2015 he was confirmed as Co-Chairman of the EU-Georgia Parliamentary Committee on Association. In October 2015, he was elected leader of the Majority Party, filling the vacancy left by .

In 2016 he was elected an MP of the 9th Parliament. From 2016-2019 he was Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Diaspora and Caucasus Issues.

On , Kvachantiradze left Georgian Dream. A meeting of members of the Georgian Dream party was held on 18 March where it was decided that a vote would be held in Parliament to replace Kvachantiradze as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Diaspora and Caucasus Issues with , but the vote failed in Parliament on 19 March. Before a second vote could be called by Irakli Kobakhidze, Kvachantiradze resigned the Chairmanship. Anri Okhanashvili claimed that there was an issue with the voting buttons that caused the initial vote to fail. The vote subsequently carried, making Odisharia the Committee Chairman.

After leaving the majority, Kvachantiradze and Eka Beselia were removed from the delegation sent to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a move that Liliane Maury Pasquier stated she understood would not take place until January 2020, despite the Georgian Parliament forming a new delegation prior to 18 April 2019.

Kvachantiradze joined with Beselia and to form the For Justice party on . Kvachantiradze was the initial political secretary of the party as well as being a member of its council.

On , Kvachantiradze and five other members of Parliament – including Popkhadze – founded a new party, the Solidarity Alliance of Georgia. Kvachantiradze served as the party's political council chairman. Despite founding the new party, both Kvachantiradze and Popkhadze retained their positions with For Justice because they had not signed statements of withdrawal.

In 2023, Kvachantiradze signed a statement alongside thirteen other former members of the Georgian Dream party calling on Parliament to begin the reforms required for candidacy to become a member of the European Union.

On social issues Kvatchantiradze expressed disagreement with statements attributed to Ilia II made in January 2014 which opposed surrogacy.

He was committed to integrating Georgia into Europe and NATO.

With respect to Russian relations, when Yury Luzhkov visited Abkhazia in 2017, a violation of the Law on Occupied Territories of Georgia, Georgian authorities included his name on a list of "undesirable persons" in response to his statement that he did not care he had broken the law. Kvachantiradze called it a provocation.

Personal life Kvatchantiradze is married with two sons. He speaks Georgian, English, German, Russian and Turkish languages.

References

Sources

External links Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia

Parliament of Georgia