Salome Zourabichvili is a Georgian politician and former diplomat who currently serves as the President of Georgia, in office since December 2018. She is the first woman to be elected as Georgia's President.
Zourabichvili joined the French diplomatic service in the 1970s and went on to occupy a variety of senior diplomatic positions in the French government for three decades. From 2003 to 2004, she served as the Ambassador of France to Georgia. In 2004, by mutual agreement between the Presidents of France and Georgia, she accepted Georgian nationality and became the Foreign Minister of Georgia. During her tenure at the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), she negotiated a landmark treaty that led to the withdrawal of Russian forces from the undisputed parts of the Georgian mainland.
She has also served at the UN Security Council’s Iran Sanctions Committee as the Coordinator of the Panel of Experts. In 2006, President Zourabichvili founded the Way of Georgia political party, which she led until 2010. Ultimately, she was elected to the Georgian Parliament in 2016 as an independent MP; she vacated her parliamentary seat after being sworn in as the President. During the 2018 Georgian Presidential election, President Zourabichvili ran as an independent candidate.