Georgia, Tbilisi, June 21 / Trend, N. Kirtzkhalia /
Georgia's State Minister for Reintegration Paata Zakareishvili and OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek participated in the round table on "Ljubljana principles for the integration of a distinct community".
According the apparatus of the State Minister, the discussion was opened by Knut Vollebaek.
In turn, Zakareishvili talked about the national concept of civic integration and tolerance, and stated its main areas: rule of law, education, the Georgian language, media and access to information, political integration and civic participation, social and regional integration, culture and identity. As Zakareshvili noted, the state feels knowledge of the official language by national minorities is key for full integration into society.
"We fully assist the preservation of the identity of national minorities, but it should not interfere with their civil integration into the state. A positive trend has been observed in terms of teaching the official language, and we hope that in a few years, representatives of national minorities will be as fluent in Georgian as in their native language or Russian," the Minister of State said.
The round table was attended by representatives of non-governmental organizations, government agencies, the Office of the Public Defender and the diplomatic corps.