There is no provision in the Vienna Convention stating that an ambassador should not meet with opposition representatives in the host country, said Gigi Gigiadze, former Deputy Foreign Minister, senior researcher at the Economic Policy Research Center, and former ambassador, on “PalitraNews”’ program “Resume”, responding to critical statements made by government representatives regarding ambassadors.
According to Gigiadze, in a democratic country, ambassadors cannot be isolated and, on the contrary, are obliged to meet with all political actors and politicians and maintain close relations with them.
“As a rule, in democratic countries, ambassadors meet with both government and opposition representatives. The 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations does not restrict diplomats from holding meetings in the host country with representatives of political parties in power or in opposition. No one can force them not to do so. There is an appeal that they should not interfere in domestic affairs, and this interpretation of the Vienna Convention is only seen in authoritarian countries like Russia and Belarus. The same rhetoric heard in those countries at the time is being directly adopted here.
There is no provision in the Vienna Convention stating that an ambassador should not meet with opposition representatives in the host country. On the contrary, ambassadors are obliged to meet with all political actors and politicians and maintain very close relations with them. They are also obliged to engage with the civil sector and non-governmental organizations to gather maximum information to provide their capitals with accurate and objective information about what is actually happening in the country. No one can prohibit them from doing this, and they have the right to do so,” Gigi Gigiadze stated.
Gigi Gigiadze: There is no provision in the Vienna Convention stating that an ambassador should not meet with opposition representatives – the rhetoric used is directly taken from what was heard in Russia and Belarus at the time
