“(Qataris) will always try and they show that they care”

A sense of calm and contentment, the one that graces those who feel completely at home, is writ large on her face. Eighteen years since she and her family have been living in the region, Ekaterine Meiering-Mikadze appears to have struck home-like harmony with the immediate world around her.
“We feel at so much ease here in Doha,” the Ambassador of Georgia to Qatar says, her eyes running across the breadth of a spacious meeting room at the embassy which has now been a little over three years old, “We have been living in the region since 1998, and the Gulf, and now Qatar, truly feels like our home.” For a seasoned globe-trotter and a well-versed diplomat, the lines between home and home away from home have clearly blurred with time.
As a girl, Meiering-Mikadze’s home was in the small city of Gori in Georgia. She was five when her family moved to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. “I did my schooling there, and studied Arabic language and literature at the University of Tbilisi,” Meiering-Mikadze says, “I then took up a year-long exchange programme in Tunis and returned to Georgia in 1989. It was an extremely difficult time for Georgia as the Soviet Union was coming to an end and a civil war was erupting in our land.”
After working with the government administration for a while, Meiering-Mikadze took up a scholarship to study at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris for three years, and specialised in the analysis of modern Arab world. Following a brief return to Georgia, Meiering-Mikadze flew back to Europe and did a bunch of programmes and work that took her across Europe.
In the professional environment of European countries, Meiering-Mikadze was discovering herself. “I wanted to learn new things. For somebody coming from the Soviet background, this was a whole new world. I wanted to work in these foreign institutions so as to absorb the work ethic and gain precious experience,” she says.
While living in Europe, Meiering-Mikadze also met her German husband Gregor — they studied together in Paris — and soon got married. As the couple moved around the Middle East owing to Gregor’s work, Meiering-Mikadze gleaned crucial insights by working in development projects around the Middle East.
“In Saudi Arabia, we had a huge chance to work with German Technical Corporation on Saudi’s science development plans,” she recalls, “Next, we moved to Jordan for working with Palestinian authorities. For me, everything was about boundless learning. I figured I had this wonderful opportunity to learn about all these countries, and how their governments, societies and systems function.”
So when Meiering-Mikadze came home to Georgia in 2004 and began working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she had already matured in matters of human relations, way beyond her years. “I am very grateful to the people who helped me take these first steps in the field of diplomacy because as you can understand, I am not a career diplomat,” she says, smiling.
Soon, Meiering-Mikadze took on the challenging mantle of being Georgia’s ambassador to Jordan and opening an embassy there. “We then knew that we had to expand our presence because this region is absolutely important for us and also these countries are our neighbours,” she says, “The Jordan embassy covered other countries like Iraq so as to build new relations with the post-Saddam era Iraqi government.”
In 2009, Meiering-Mikadze was posted at the Georgian embassy in Kuwait, which handled all the GCC countries, and as an ambassador in the Gulf, realised that there wasn’t much awareness in the region about her country. “We had to build something from scratch. It takes time before others become aware of you, and before you get your voice heard,” she says.
With Georgia’s relations with Qatar having been on a continual upswing, four years ago, Meiering-Mikadze got posted to Doha, as she opened the embassy here and has been doing a commendable job of bridging ties between the two nations across various arenas. However, even the daunting task of putting together a new embassy hasn’t fazed her in the least.
“It wasn’t difficult at all. I had been covering Qatar when I was in Kuwait. I just came closer to Qatar, that’s all. In Gulf generally and Qatar particularly, I never felt that I wasn’t welcome or any work is difficult. People here are very open and generous,” Meiering-Mikadze says, “A wise ambassador once told me that the Gulf countries are like one big house with different rooms — you open one room, you enter another.”
From 2009 to 2012, as she juggled between several high-level delegation visits and establishing flights to Georgia via Qatar Airways, she kept frequenting Qatar, only to witness snatches of a nation in the thick of an overwhelming transformation at a frenetic speed.
“I would visit Doha almost every month and every time, I would be impressed by the pace of development. I couldn’t recognise the roads or directions anymore. The leaps of progress were so striking that it was like a film unfolding in front of my eyes,” she says.
Meiering-Mikadze likes Qatar as much as Qataris. “I like their seriousness in their dealing with matters. I also appreciate their readiness to help. Many times, I have approached Qataris for help and they have got things done. They will always try and they show that they care, which is important,” she explains, “While I meet Qatari men in professional capacity, my interactions with Qatari women have made me realise how generous, wonderful, and genuinely sweet they are. I experienced this in Saudi, Kuwait, UAE, and Qatar; the ladies in the Gulf are really different. Many a time, I notice that the way they talk, observe and connect, they are pristine like children.”
As for Georgians in Qatar, it’s still an extremely tiny community with around 100 Georgians currently living here. “But it’s steadily growing,” Meiering-Mikadze says, referring to Georgians serving with Qatar Airways, or working in the health and hospitality sectors, or living here as students at Qatar University.
As hectic as steering the embassy here is, it’s still calmer than her previous postings. “In Kuwait, since I was covering all the GCC countries, the plane had turned into a bus for me. Within a day, I would have flown across Riyadh, Doha and Manama. In Qatar, I have all the time to focus specifically on Qatar.”
While time flies fast, Meiering-Mikadze tries to spend as much of it as she can with family. “While Friday sometimes passes by quickly due to attending some event or the other, all of Saturday is for my son,” she says, of her six-year-old Matthaeus, “He speaks a bit of Arabic and he especially likes to sing Arabic children’s songs.”
Having been raised in a family that regarded keeping an open mind as a pre-requisite to growing up, Meiering-Mikadze is ever grateful to her parents for instilling in her a willingness to learn new insights from every part of the world, which would immensely enrich her personality.
“Living and studying in France in 1993 was a major turning point in my life. That’s when I realised, I was also acquiring a part of their identity. Identity, therefore, isn’t a static thing. It’s something that gets added to by other identities, making us richer, more tolerant and more open to the world. And I now see this in my young son,” she says.
Born and raised in Gulf countries, Matthaeus muses about the uniqueness of growing up in Qatar, as revealed by his questions and curiosities. “He loves to wear the guthra and the thobe, and when he sees other Qatari kids, he wants to be like them,” Meiering-Mikadze says, smiling, “It doesn’t hamper his identity but only enhances it. Matthaeus has his own identity from us, but he’s also discovering all the time. We live in a global world today, and Qatar has a truly diverse expat population. All these interactions, Insha’Allah, will make him a better person.”
Of late, events related to Georgia have been catching speed in Qatar. Last month, the Georgian Living Heritage Exhibition at Katara introduced Qatar to the many facets and layers of the rich tradition, culture, art, and craft of Georgia, while last October, the annual festival of Tbilisoba, celebrated the diverse history of Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, at Katara.
“We have some interesting events lined up,” says Meiering-Mikadze, a tinge of excitement in her voice, “Renowned Georgian pianist Eliso Bolkvadze is set to perform at the QNCC next month, and there will be a photography exhibition featuring the amazing works of a famous Georgian photographer who visited Doha and two Qatari lady photographers who went to Georgia and have returned with stunning images. I can’t wait for Doha to experience all of this.”