Georgia's parliament approves new prime minister Kvirikashvili

Moscow (dpa) - The parliament of the former Soviet republic of Georgia approved Giorgi Kvirikashvili as the new prime minister on Tuesday, according to an announcement on his cabinet‘s website.Last week the republic‘s president nominated Kvirikashvili, who was then serving as foreign minister, to become prime minister after the last one surprisingly announced a couple of days earlier that he was tendering his resignation without giving a specific reason.Kvirikashvili, 48, was appointed foreign minister in September after previously serving as economy minister.In recent years Georgia, a nation of about 4.5 million people in the southern Caucasus Mountains, has been seeking closer ties with the European Union and the Western military alliance NATO, while at the same time repairing frayed economic and political relations with Russia.Georgia lost a brief war with Russia in 2008 over two seceding regions - South Ossetia and Abkhazia - that declared independence. Russia recognized that independence and gave many local residents Russian passports.