A delegation of the State Agency for Religious Issues, which is visiting the United States of America, met with Wade Kusack, Senior Scholar of the Institute for Global Engagement, Head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia program, founder and CEO of the organization “Love Your Neighbor Community”, and Greg Mitchell, founder and CEO of the “International Religious Freedom Roundtable”.

At the meeting, held today at the Embassy of Georgia in Washington, D.C., the main directions of bilateral cooperation to promote religious freedom and social cohesion and ways of practical implementation of the planned initiatives were discussed.

On May 21-23, at the invitation of American non-governmental organizations - the “International Religious Freedom Secretariat” (IRF Secretariat) and “Love Your Neighbor Community” (LYNC), the delegation of the Agency will participate in the Cooperative Engagement & Builders forum planned in Washington, where there will be a discussion on the establishment of the IRF Regional Secretariat and the Round Table Project in Georgia. Zaza Vashakmadze will deliver a speech at the opening session of the forum and will participate in a panel discussion on the topic: “Regional Initiatives to Build Religious Freedom, Equal Citizenship, Social Cohesion and Covenantal Pluralism”.

Within the framework of the forum, on May 22, it is planned to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the State Agency for Religious Issues and American non-governmental organizations - the IRF Secretariat and LYNC.

During the visit, meetings with partner organizations and international institutions of different countries are planned in order to strengthen cooperation in the field of religious freedom and tolerance.

The meeting was attended by the Counselor to the Acting Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to the United States, Sandro Inashvili, Head of the Legal Maintenance Office of the Agency, Davit Davitashvili, and Chief Specialist of the Legal Maintenance Office, Aleksandre Shekiladze.