Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili paid an official visit to Luxembourg this week, and by every account it was a visit that landed well on both sides. It opened with a one-to-one between Papuashvili and Chamber of Deputies President Claude Wiseler, before the two were joined by members of the Bureau and the Foreign Affairs Committee for a broader exchange of views.

Papuashvili didn’t travel alone. His delegation included Nikoloz Samkharadze, Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, Levan Makhashvili, who chairs the EU Integration Committee, and Davit Matikashvili, Chair of the Procedural Issues Committee — a lineup that signals how seriously Tbilisi is treating the Luxembourg relationship.

Warm words, substantive talks

The Georgian side used the occasion to thank Luxembourg for its consistent support of Georgia’s territorial integrity, a point that carries particular weight given the subjects on the table. Both delegations pointed to a parliamentary relationship that keeps building momentum, recalling an earlier meeting in Istanbul back in April, held on the margins of the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s General Assembly. There was also space for the practical side of diplomacy: business ties and tourism cooperation both featured in the discussions, a reminder that these visits are about more than communiqués.

On the substance, the two delegations covered Georgia’s EU accession process, which has slowed since 2024, alongside the situation in Georgia’s Russian-occupied border regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Georgian perspectives on sanctions in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Here, the Georgian readout struck a notably constructive note: Tbilisi describing itself as successfully meeting its obligations under the Association Agreement, and stressing the importance of restoring dialogue with Brussels. Papuashvili thanked the Luxembourg Parliament for hosting the visit, calling personal exchanges a valuable tool of parliamentary diplomacy — remarks that reflected a reception that was, by all indications, genuinely warm on both sides.

Building on a decade of ties

None of this happened in a vacuum. A Luxembourg parliamentary delegation travelled to Georgia on an official visit back in March 2023, and Luxembourg MPs later took part in an election observation mission during Georgia’s 2024 legislative elections. The relationship, in other words, has had time to mature — and this visit reads as the next chapter rather than a first encounter.

A detour to Vianden, and an unexpected thread back to Colchis

Beyond the parliamentary business, the programme took the Georgian delegation to Vianden Castle, one of Luxembourg’s most striking medieval sites, perched above the Our valley. Guided through its halls and courtyards, the delegation paused in front of a 17th-century tapestry that clearly caught the Speaker’s attention: a scene of Ulysses arriving on the island of the sorceress Circe.

It’s a detail worth lingering on. In Greek myth, Circe is a princess of Colchis — the ancient kingdom that occupied much of what is now western Georgia — and daughter of King Aeëtes. Odysseus’s encounter with her, and the guidance she gives him for surviving the Sirens and the sea monsters that follow, is one of the Odyssey’s more memorable episodes. Standing in a Luxembourg castle, looking at a tapestry that quietly ties back to the Caucasus, is the kind of coincidence that makes these cultural detours worth including alongside the official communiqués. It’s a small thread, but a telling one: Georgia’s presence in the European imagination runs deeper, and further back, than most people realise.

Sources: Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg, Parliament of Georgia