MFA: Georgia listens to its friend's recommendations carefully

After the country’s Prime Minister engaged in an online debate with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt this week, Georgia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Maia Panjikidze is insisting Georgia thoroughly listens to all recommendations and opinions offered by its friends regarding the country’s development.

In recent days Bildt said on Twitter that if PM Irakli Garibashvili did not want to listen to the opinions of Georgia’s "best friends” in the European Union, it was his choice but the move would be noted.

Bildt’s comments were in response to a statement Garibashvili made earlier today claiming Bildt and Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius were from "a club of Saakashvili’s friends”.

Meanwhile yesterday the Lithuanian official tweeted charges imposed by Georgia on the country’s former president could possibly be "selective justice” and if so, this was "incompatible” with European integration. He called on the Georgian Government to "avoid such practice” and remove any doubts.

When asked about Linkevicius’ tweet today, PM Garibashvili responded: "I will explain it very simply. I want to explain it to the public. This is kind of a club of Saakashvili’s friends who have certain obligations of friendship and they are just expressing their sympathy.”

"Unfortunately they were not aware of the awful things that had been happening in Georgia for years. Even [during] the war, it was absolutely terrible to see footage … during the 2008 war which showed the commander-in-chief running away,” Garibashvili told journalists at the commemoration of Georgian soldiers fallen in the August 2008 war.

On Wednesday Bildt voiced concern over Saakashvili’s prosecution and wrote on Twitter: "Georgia’s authorities deviate from European path in using justice system for revenge. Does damage to the country.”

In a separate tweet, Bildt also wrote: "there is rising international concern over the policies of revenge in Georgia. Damages the country.”

Today PM Garibashvili reaffirmed the Georgian Government would spare no efforts while investigating Saakashvili’s case and said the investigation would be transparent.

Similarly, Foreign Minister Panjikidze said no one had right to interfere in the legal process, which had to be transparent and meet international standards, and the Government’s reports were directed to ensure that.

When asked if she accepted the PM’s view about Bildt being a member of a "club of Saakashvili’s friends”, she responded Bildt had been a strong friend of Georgia for a long time.

"He is Georgia’s friend first of all and obviously, being a friend of Georgia does not exclude personal friendship. He visited Georgia recently and we had a very fruitful meeting with him, the Prime Minister as well. We appreciate his contribution to the process of Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration,” Panjikidze said.

She asked everyone who was interested in current events in Georgia to wait for the completion of the processes to draw conclusions about whether they were transparent, fair and evidence-based.

She said the rule of law - the fundamental values of the EU and the Western countries – were the most important things for Georgia, and the investigation into Saakashvili’s alleged role in past injustices would serve these principles.

She believed if Georgia continued along its chosen way, the rule of law would become one of the most important values and the country would do everything it could to follow and defend it.

Meanwhile, Minister Panjikidze insisted nothing threatened Georgia’s relations with its international partners or the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration.