Diplomacy is not obedience – diplomacy is service to the country! What is the ambassador sent to Brussels by the Georgian people doing now that the country’s European course has been changed? You, Georgian diplomats, what are you doing to save this country? True loyalty to the country is not measured by career silence. It is measured by speaking the truth – even when that truth is heavy.

This is what Georgia’s fifth President, Salome Zurabishvili, writes on social media today, marking 'Georgian Diplomacy Day'.

Zurabishvili notes that today Georgian diplomats have forgotten why they have the privilege of serving in the name of the country.

“On 3 November 1629 a man died in the Vatican who, centuries earlier, had already fulfilled the mission of a true diplomat: he defended Georgia’s independence, he sought ties with Europe, he fought to keep our country from becoming a victim of imperial influence.

That is why, in 2004, as Foreign Minister, I established 'Georgian Diplomacy Day'. Diplomacy – the symbol of loyalty to the nation’s interests and of professional dignity.

But today, on this date, it is impossible to stay silent and not speak the truth.

Diplomacy is not obedience – diplomacy is service to the country! Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani walked the road to Europe so that Georgia would not disappear.

Yet today Georgian diplomats have forgotten why they were granted the privilege of serving in the name of the country. Why, by whom, and for what purpose were you posted as diplomats to those countries?

What is the ambassador sent to Brussels by the Georgian people doing now that the country’s European course has been reversed? You, Georgian diplomats, what are you doing to save this country?

True loyalty to the country is not measured by career silence. It is measured by the truth – even when that truth is heavy, painful, and demands that each of us pay our price: to give up the comfort you arranged for yourselves and your families in that very Europe – comfort you owe to the Georgian people – comfort that, by your inaction today, you are also stripping from their European future.

Diplomacy must be dignity. But today that dignity is absent in you!” – writes Salome Zurabishvili.