Lithuania has officially legalised Sakartvelo as the proper name of Georgia.

“Sakartvelas is the official name now”, - said Audrys Antanaitis, chairman of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language.

The commission decided on December 21 to remove “Gruzija” (Georgia) from its documents setting the official Lithuanian-language names of countries and replace it with “Sakartvelas”.

Two years ago, the Lithuanian language watchdog approved “Sakartvelas” as an alternative name for “Gruzija”.