The Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni and her Georgian counterpart Tinatin Rukhadze agreed on organizing a series of joint initiatives across various cultural sectors during their meeting at the Acropolis Museum. Mendoni emphasized that “cultural relations between Greece and Georgia have deep historical roots and significant prospects for the future.”

Among the planned initiatives is the strengthening of cooperation between the Byzantine and Christian Museum, the Museum of Byzantine Culture, and the European Centre for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments, with the Institute of Classical, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of Tbilisi State University. Plans also include a joint exhibition in Athens featuring Byzantine manuscripts from the monasteries of Mount Athos and Georgia’s National Centre of Manuscripts.

The two ministers also discussed expanding archaeological cooperation between the national archaeological museums of both countries, as well as supporting excavations related to their shared historical past through ministries and universities. Special mention was made of the excavations led by Vakhtang Litcheli to locate the ancient Greek colony of Phasis, in present-day Poti on the Black Sea.

In the field of contemporary culture, Mendoni highlighted the importance of reciprocal translations of literary works, making use of the GreekLit program of the Hellenic Foundation for Books and Culture to promote Greek literature abroad.

For her part, Rukhadze proposed strengthening collaboration in music, theatre, and cinema.

The two ministers also agreed to enhance cooperation within UNESCO and the Council of Europe, particularly in Cultural Routes, in which both countries already participate jointly in five routes. Within the framework of the Iter Vitis wine route, they discussed potential collaboration between the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki and the Georgian National Museum. Mendoni noted that an invitation will soon be sent to the museum’s Director General, the distinguished archaeologist David Lordkipanidze, to visit Greece.

Finally, the Georgian Minister of Culture invited Mendoni to pay an official visit to Georgia in the near future, with the aim of signing a bilateral memorandum of cooperation in the field of culture, covering all the aforementioned areas.