Han Zheng’s Georgia Visit Deepens China’s South Caucasus Ties
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili in Tbilisi during a three-day official visit focused on deepening economic and political ties. The visit puts Beijing’s growing engagement with the South Caucasus alongside Georgia’s push to attract investment and strengthen its role in regional transport routes.
Han arrived on November 6 and met Kavelashvili on Friday. He was also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who hosted a dinner for the Chinese delegation.
Georgian officials described Han as the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit the country. Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili said the visit offered an opportunity to discuss bilateral relations and economic cooperation at the highest level.
Han said Georgia was China’s first strategic partner in the South Caucasus and the first country in Eurasia to establish a free trade arrangement with China. He also conveyed greetings from Chinese President Xi Jinping to Kavelashvili.
Trade and transport at the center
The leaders’ June decision to elevate ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership gave the visit added weight. Han said the move opened a new stage in bilateral relations and called for stronger communication and coordination.
Officials discussed the strategic partnership, the free trade agreement, Chinese investment, the Middle Corridor and transport infrastructure. The route links Asia and Europe through the South Caucasus, giving Georgia an opportunity to develop its logistics role around the Black Sea.
For Beijing, the visit signals sustained interest in a region that sits on an important east-west transport corridor. For Tbilisi, closer ties with China could support its effort to attract investors and expand trade and infrastructure links.
That effort comes with constraints. Georgia’s relations with the European Union are frozen, while the country remains dependent on Russian trade and faces security risks in the Black Sea. Those pressures complicate Tbilisi’s effort to balance its economic goals with its wider foreign relationships.
Han’s visit is therefore a concrete sign of closer engagement, but the meetings alone do not establish a wider realignment. The Chinese delegation’s next scheduled stop is Türkiye, where Han is due to attend the World Leaders’ Summit in Antalya as part of the UN climate conference COP31.
