President Margvelashvili: Senseless of Russia to occupy peaceful Georgia

Russia’s continued occupation of two Georgian territories, the country’s role as a transit hub connecting Europe with Asia and Georgia-France relations were the focus of an interview given by Georgia’s President to a top French media outlet.

Speaking with Radio French International’s (RFI) English Service during his official three-day visit to France, Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili said negotiations that aimed to strengthen Georgia’s ties with the European Union (EU) were important, bilateral relations with key partners such as France were equally as important to Georgia’s foreign policy.

In the exclusive interview a large portion of Margvelashvili’s comments were devoted to the issue of Russia’s occupation of two Georgian territories, Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions.

"Russian troops have marched onto Georgian soil and are occupying 20 percent of my country,” he said, calling this situation a "very tragic and illogical part” of Georgia’s recent history.

Margvelashvili stressed the only solution to this problem was through diplomacy, not war.

"We should assure Russia that occupying a peaceful neighbouring country doesn’t give it any dignity, neither locally nor in the international arena,” Margvelashvili stressed.

Russia, he said, should realise it will gain friends in the region by helping bring about the peaceful return to Georgia of its breakaway regions of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) and Abkhazia. He stressed solving this problem without discussing "these issues” with the population living in the occupied regions would be wrong.

Georgia-French relations were also discussed by Margvelashvili in his interview.

"[Our partnership] with the French side are developing in a very intense and dynamic process – be it in economic, education, culture or military issues,” he said, adding France was "a very important country for international format [of talks]”.

Furthermore, Margvelashvili stressed one of the current objectives of Georgia was to become part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). He highlighted in 2014 Georgia was granted the status of the most interoperable non-NATO member military force. Currently Georgia has soldiers serving in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, as well as in the Central African Republic in the EU-led mission.

President Margvelashvili said he felt confident of the economic role that Georgia could play in being a hub connecting Asia and Europe, thanks to the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan oil pipeline and the soon-to-be operational Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway that will link China and central Asia to Europe.

On a personal note, he said he had taken up knitting, a rather surprising hobby, "as a dramatic effort" to quit smoking, but he warned fellow smokers that giving up was harder than expected.

Listen to the full interview here.