The Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, attended the Munich Security Conference. At a panel discussion, he delivered a speech noting that since the Georgian Dream party came to power, a lot of efforts have been made to de-escalate the situation and that the country is actively cooperating on the path of European integration.
“When it comes to the war in Ukraine, of course, this is a big challenge for all of us. Since WWII, Europe and the world, in general, have not experienced such a big challenge. In 2008, we had a war with Russia and since then Russia has been occupying our historic territories – Abkhazia and so-called South Ossetia. Russia has two military bases on our territory and we have been facing lots of problems and challenges, but after we came to power in 2012, we made a lot of efforts to de-escalate the tension. At the same time, we have been very active on our European integration path. Georgia signed an Association Agreement, a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, we got the visa-free regime and last year came to the historic decision when the European Council decided to give us the European Perspective. So, to respond to your question on how the war in Ukraine affects all of us and Georgia, right now, we all see that Russia is focusing on Ukraine. It is a devastating war and I have to say that we must do everything in order to stop this war,” stated Garibashvili.
As the Prime Minister noted, peace has no alternative and Georgia pursues a peace plan to restore its territorial integrity.
“There is no alternative to peace and I have to tell you that Georgia has been pursuing a peaceful resolution policy when it comes to the restoration of sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country. We have made it very clear that Georgia has a peaceful plan to restore its territorial integrity and I want to thank the OSCE, EU, US, and other participants who have been actively involved in the mediation process. The Geneva International Discussions is the only platform that we have right now with Russians. So, therefore I must repeat again that this war must be stopped. We have seen the effect of war in our country since 2008. A lot of people died and we lost control of our territories completely. As I said, Russia has military bases on our territory. It is ongoing. It does not stop. I also want to mention that since the 2008 War, we have not seen any sanctions imposed on Russia. On the contrary, we saw business continuing as usual. Therefore, it was a very –let’s say – bad signal.
“To conclude, I think the international community must now decide how we move forward, because if this war continues, it means more devastation and more killings of civilians. So, therefore, I once again repeat that our intention – our main goal – has to be to stop this war,” the Prime Minister said.
