Georgia Urges Germany to Update Officials Listed on Foreign Office Website
By Messenger Staff
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Georgia's Foreign Ministry, along with officials from the ruling Georgian Dream party, has called on Germany to update its official country profile to reflect changes in Georgia's leadership following the disputed 2024 elections.
The request concerns the website of Germany's Federal Foreign Office, which still lists Salome Zourabichvili as president and Ilia Darchiashvili as foreign minister. Georgian Dream officials say they should be replaced by Mikheil Kavelashvili and Maka Botchorishvili, who assumed their roles after the October 2024 parliamentary vote and subsequent presidential election.
According to documents aired by pro-government Imedi TV, Georgian officials first raised the issue verbally on March 4, followed by a formal written note on April 9. In the note, the Foreign Ministry said it "once again reminds" the German side that Kavelashvili has served as president since December 29, 2024, and that Botchorishvili has been foreign minister since December 1, requesting that the changes be reflected online. Officials have indicated that additional communications may have been sent.
As of late April, the German Foreign Office website had not been updated.
Georgian Dream has criticized Berlin, rejecting the idea that the issue is a technical oversight. "Of course, we cannot be so naïve as to believe that for two years now, employees of the German Foreign Ministry have been unable to correct a technical error," Botchorishvili said on April 15. "It is about the will that the German side must express to simply place correct information on its website."
Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also dismissed the situation as trivial but telling. "The German administration is putting itself in a comical position when it does not even want to change formal information about the president on its website," he said on April 28.
The dispute comes amid strained relations between Tbilisi and Berlin, with Georgian Dream officials repeatedly accusing German Ambassador Peter Fischer of interfering in domestic affairs.
