“Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow” as Amb. Imnadze goes to Canada
Such was the love – on open display – by all the diplomatic stalwarts present and in absentia during the July 9th Farewell Reception and Dinner in honor of dearest Lika & H.E. Kaha Imnadze hosted by Ranju Batra & I.
Since it was Eid on July 9th, I started the festivities with “Eid Mubarak!,” and honored Blessed Pope Francis’ recipe for peace: respect all faiths. This event started with an Invitation worthy of Amb. Imnadze’s many accomplishments, some perpetual. The Invitation read:
Invitation to Honor & Celebrate Lika & H.E. Kaha Imnadze
World class diplomat, who has served Georgia with honor and distinction as her Permanent Representative since July 2013, always working to protect her sovereignty in full measure, while enhancing multilateral-based global peace & security with his many exceptional diplomatic accomplishments, including: Co-Chair IGN on Security Council Reform; and Co-Facilitator of the Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage. He was the history-making host of the Dinner on October 10, 2016, which ultimately resulted in Georgia being a Co-Organizer of the “Diwali Stamp – Power of One Awards,” aka “Oscars of Diplomacy,” an annual event at the UN since 2016 to recognize and promote diplomatic excellence needed to “turn swords into plough shears.” He has made Georgia – and all of us – proud, while enhancing the vital role of the United Nations “to form a more perfect world.”
Since Georgia had PR Kaha Imnadze serve for 9 years, he dealt with more than 193 PRs, and as a result we, as hosts, had the joy of relating to all diplomatic stars gathered that there were more diplomatic stars wishing Kaha well, than there were nations!
For brevity sake, at the start of the formal program, I relayed that fact, and then named a few diplomatic stars who sent their warmest wishes: H.E. Andrei Dapkiunas (Belarus; Lead Organizer of 2016 Diwali), H.E. Agshin Mehdiyev (Power of One Awardee (DPO – Azerbaijan)), H.E. Yuriy Sergeyev (DPO – Ukraine), H.E. Volodymyr Yelchenko (DPO – Ukraine), H.E. Yashar Aliyev (Azerbaijan), H.E. Andrej Logar (DPO – Slovenia), H.E. Catherine Boura (DPO – Greece), H.E. Bostjan Malovrh (Slovenia), H.E. Nguyen Phuong (DPO – Viet Nam), H.E. Nicholas Emiliou (DPO – Cyprus), H.E. Frantisek Ruzicka (DPO – Slovakia), H.E. Kairat Abdrakhmanov (OSCE HCNM, DPO – FM Kazakhstan), H.E. Kairat Umarov (Kazakhstan), H.E. Magzhan Ilyassov (Kazakhstan), H.E. Ferit Hoxha (UNSC – Albania), H.E. Juan Ramon de la Fuente Ramirez (UNSC – Mexico), H.E. Miguel Angel Moratinos (FM Spain; HR UNAOC), H.E. Rosemary DiCarlo (USA; USG), H.E. Miroslav Jenca (Slovakia, ASG), H.E. Gheorghe Leuca (Moldova), H.E. Ion Botnaru (DPO – Moldova), H.E. Lakshmi Puri (UN Women, DPO – India), and the 77th President of the UN General Assembly H.E. Csaba KoRosi (Assistant to President Orban of Hungary).
Between Invitation and July 9th, we learned that dear H.E.Rodrigo Alberto Carazo Zeledón of Costa Rica was also leaving. So, he too, was honored on July 9th, with great wishes to carry back to Costa Rica and dear H.E. Juan Carlos Mendoza Garcia and family.
So, the highlight of the evening honoring Lika and Kaha were the numerous heartfelt warm, insightful, funny, and serious Toasts by our dear friends and diplomatic stars:
H.E. Valentin Rybakov, Belarus, as lead organizer of DPO, and who as DFM in 2016 spoke of Ranju Batra’s achievement as her “power of one”; a phrase that morphed into the creation of the Diwali Foundation USA and its annual “Diwali Stamp – Power of One” Award to recognize and promote diplomatic excellence at the UN, especially between adversaries, so as to achieve the UN Ideals and be able to “form a more perfect world”;
especially coming from mighty Washington DC were H.E. Jean-Claude do Rego (Benin) and H.E. Georgi Velikov Panayotov (Bulgaria);
H.E. Maged Abdelaziz (DPO – Egypt) and H.E. Khaled Khiari (DPO – Tunisia);
special friends H.E. Teburoro Tito (Kiribati, frm head of state); H.E. Vanessa Frazier (UNSC – Malta); H.E. Mitch FiField (Australia); H.E. Tarek El Adab (Tunisia); H.E. Olof Skoog (EU/Sweden King Gustaf King’s Medal, 12th size with Ribbon of the Order of Seraphim); H.E. Keisha McGuire (Grenada); H.E. Andrejs Pildegovics (Latvia); H.E. Sophia Tesfamariam (Eritrea); H.E. Lachezara Stoeva (Bulgaria); H.E. Jakub Kulhánek (Czech); H.E. Darja Bavdaz-Kuret (Senior Adv PGA76; Slovenia); H.E. Neville Melvin Gertze (Namibia); H.E. Elisenda Vives Balamana (Andorra); H.E. Mher Margaryan (Armenia); H.E. Mohan Pieris (Sri Lanka); H.E. Paula Narvaez Ojeda (Chile); H.E. Jonibek Hikmat (Tajikstan); H.E. Ivan Simonovic (Croatia); H.E. Lizzy Flores Flake (Honduras); and H.E. Sofia Borges.
Au revoir…until we meet again, soon, in peace and in health…
Related article:
H.E. Kaha Imnadze – Georgia and His Journey
Ravi Batra, Esq.
Ravi Batra, starting September 11, 2021, is a publisher of The America Times Company Ltd., and since January 2022, is the Editor-in-Chief. He is a member of the National Press Club, in Washington D.C., and a member of its "Freedom of the Press" and "International Correspondents" Teams/Committees.
A member of the bar since 1981, he is the head of a boutique law firm in Manhattan, The Law Firm of Ravi Batra, P.C., that handles complex constitutional, sovereignty, torture, civil and criminal cases, representing governments, corporates and individuals, with landmark legal victories, including, libel in fiction, in “Batra v. Dick Wolf.” He is Chairman & CEO, Greenstar Global Energy Corp., King Danylo of Galicia International Ltd., Mars & Pax Advisors, Ltd., Chairman of National Advisory Council on South Asian Affairs, and since September 2021, Advisor for Legal and Humanitarian Affairs to the Permanent Mission of Georgia to the United Nations. He is invited by various governments to address High Level Ministerial events, including, on Counter-Terrorism, including, Astana (Nur-Sultan), Dushanbe, Minsk and Delhi. He has testified in Congress as an invitee of the Chair, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, and interacted with U.S. Department of State from 1984 -1990, and then again, from 2006, during the tenures of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo and Antony Blinken.
He has served as Commissioner of New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), Trustee on New York State IOLA Board, New York State Judicial Screening Committee for the Second Judicial Department, City Bar’s Judicial Committee, Vice-Chair of Kings County Democratic County Committee’s Independent Judicial Screening Committee for the then-2nd Judicial Department of Brooklyn and Staten Island, Chair of NYSTLA’ Judicial Independence Committee, with many more bar leadership roles, including, NYSBA’s House of Delegates for four years. He has served as Advisor for Legal & Human Rights Affairs to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine post-annexation of Crimea till 2021, and Legal Advisor to numerous nations’ permanent missions to the U. N. since 2009, including, India, Pakistan, Honduras and Malta. He has served: as Global Special Counsel to The Antonov Company in Ukraine, a state-owned company, and was registered with the Justice Dept pursuant to FARA; and as Special Global Advisor to Rector/President of both - National Aviation University of Ukraine and National Technical University of Ukraine/KPI. He remains involved in geopolitics and public policy since the mid-1980's, starting with being on House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s Speaker’s Club and appointed member of NACSAA during President Ronald Reagan’s tenure. In 1988, he was part of U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese’s Delegation to Japan to resolve bilateral trade imbalance. He regularly interacts with the multilateral diplomatic community, and during the High Level UNGA Debate, with heads of State/Government. He is sought for his views as a speaker and writer.