Salome Zourabichvili

Biography of Salome Zourabichvili

Date of Birth: 12.03.1952

Salome Zourabichvili is the President of Georgia and the leader of the party 'Georgia's Way'. She was also the chairperson of the Public Movement Salome Zourabichvili (2005-2006), Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia (2004-2006), extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of France to Georgia, and head of the French national defense secretariat for international affairs and strategy (2001-2003). She also has extensive experience in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Zourabichvili holds Georgian citizenship.

Place of Birth and Education. Salome Zourabichvili was born on March 18, 1952, in Paris to a family of Georgian political emigrants Levan Zourabichvili (1906-1975) and Zeynab Kedia, who left Georgia in 1921.

In 1972, Zourabichvili graduated from the Paris Institute of Political Studies. In 1973, she earned a degree from Columbia University in the USA.

Career. Zourabichvili has been working in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1974.

From 1974 to 1977, she was the third secretary of the French Embassy in Italy.

From 1977 to 1980, she was the second secretary of the French Permanent Representation to the United Nations.

From 1980 to 1984, she worked at the Centre d'Analyse et de Prévision du Quai d'Orsay on foreign policy issues.

From 1984 to 1988, she was the first secretary of the French Embassy in the United States.

From 1989 to 1992, she held the position of second secretary of the embassy in Chad.

From 1992 to 1993, she was the first secretary of the French Permanent Representation to NATO.

From 1993 to 1996, she was the deputy permanent representative of France to the European Union.

From 1996 to 1997, she was a technical advisor in the minister's cabinet.

From 1997 to 1998, she was an inspector in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

From 1998 to 2001, she worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Directorate for Strategy, Security, and Disarmament.

In 2001, she became the head of the French national defense secretariat for international relations and strategy.

From 2003 to 2004, Zourabichvili headed the French Embassy in Georgia.

In March 2004, she was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by the President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili. She replaced Tedo Japaridze in this position. Zourabichvili told the media that she immediately agreed to take the new position and that she had dreamed of leading the Georgian diplomatic service since childhood.

She considered the decision to withdraw Russian military bases from the country as one of her significant achievements as Foreign Minister. In one of her speeches, she even called it a historic success.

In October 2005, Zourabichvili was dismissed from her ministerial position.

From 2005 to 2010, she founded and led the opposition movement Salome Zourabichvili (since March 2006 'Georgia's Way').

In November 2010, Zourabichvili announced her withdrawal from Georgian politics and handed over the leadership of the party to Kahe Seturidze. According to her, she made this decision after realizing that there was no democracy in Georgia, and the opposition could not operate in the country.

In 2018, Salome Zourabichvili was one of the main candidates for the presidency of Georgia in the elections held on October 28, 2018.

On November 28, 2018, she reached the runoff of the Georgian presidential elections. After counting 100% of the votes in the second round, Zourabichvili received 59.52% (1,147,627 citizens) of the votes from the ruling party 'Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia' and became the president of the country.

Awards. Zourabichvili is a Knight of the Legion of Honour and the National Order of Merit of the French Republic.

Family. Her first husband was Nikoloz (Koki) Gordshetani (Gugushvili), son of a Georgian and a Ukrainian, who was born in Iran and currently lives in the USA. Zourabichvili met Koki Gordshetani in 1974 in Rome. From this marriage, they had two children: son Teimuraz and daughter Ketevan, who bear their father's last name.

The second husband was the former Soviet dissident and journalist Zhanr Kashia, who received political asylum in France and then continued his career as a journalist in independent Georgia. He passed away in 2012 at the age of 72. There are no children from the second marriage.

Zourabichvili's cousin is the permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences Élène Carrère d'Encausse, who was also named Zourabichvili.

She holds both French and Georgian citizenship.

In addition to French and Georgian, she also speaks Russian, English, German, and Italian.

06.10.2023