Georgian President: answer to Russia's aggression is European Union and European integration

The answer to Russia's aggression is European Union and European integration, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said during her visit to Brussels on Thursday where she met the President of the European Council Charles Michel.

The Georgian President, who also took part in a discussion entitled Women in Conflict, highlighted the presence of Russia’s occupation troops only 40 kilometres from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in central Georgia’s occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region as a “very clear threat”.

She said the security risk was further amplified by a recent announcement by de facto authorities of the region of a referendum to join Russia, in a move she likened to the referendum held in Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014. Even though plans for the Tskhinvali referendum were later cancelled, the “threat may return”, the President warned.

Zourabichvili also noted the danger from Russia concerned not only Georgia but “all European countries”, adding the international community needed to take measures it had failed to enact with Crimea and following the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia that marked the beginning of the ongoing occupation of two Georgian regions.

“The European Union and European leaders have now recognised what the real face of Russia is, as well as the real aims of Russia - another step is to be taken to answer Russia [on these threats], and the answer is only one - it is the European Union, it’s integration [of aspiring countries into the EU]", Zourabichvili said.