PM Garibashvili in New Year address: May 2023 bring unity, peace, mutual respect, prosperity, success

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has congratulated the Georgian population on New Year’s Eve wishing for 2023 to bring nation-wide unity, peace, materialising hopes, greater love, mutual respect, prosperity and success.

Garibashvili said even though 2022 had brought “a lot of pain, leaving traces of hardship and risks” in Georgian people’s memory, the country had success and progress “in every direction” and noted with a “reasonable and prudent” approach the year passed “in peace and stability”, with the country looking ahead to the entry of the new 2023 with hope.

Garibashvili highlighted Georgia’s “historic step” forward to the European Union, by making its application for accession and noted the country with its “unique” culture and traditions would “ultimately” become a “fully-fledged” member of the European family, with it already recognising the European perspective of Georgia.

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He also stressed 2022 had been “one of the most” difficult years in terms of geopolitical risks, with the war in Ukraine changing the lives of Ukrainians and creating a “completely new” geopolitical reality in the entire world. Garibashvili wished Happy New Year to Ukrainian “brothers and sisters”, as well as their children living in Georgia, wishing them a “quick end” to the war and a peaceful return to their motherland.

The Head of the Government said Georgia’s national interests, security and people and the country’s stable future were the “core” basis of the Government’s strategy, and noted a “concrete” result of the “prudent and result-oriented” policy was peace, stability and “unprecedented” economic growth, adding “historically much-troubled nation” needed to demonstrate due reasoning and prudence in the current “widely-risky” environment.

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The population of Georgia, including its compatriots living in the occupied territories of the country – Abkhaz and Ossetian brothers – “increasingly tend” to understand that with a higher rate of stability, peace, security and development, Georgia became a “desired home” for them, the PM said, noting he “strongly believed” they would live together again in “strong” Georgia.

Freedom-loving and proud Georgian people are not accustomed to surrender or acceptance of the unwanted. With our new vision, ambitious, wide-scale plans and projects, we welcome 2023 with greater daring in anticipation of a better, more successful, much more abundant and peaceful year”, Garibashvili noted.

In his address, Garibashvili congratulated “heroic” servicemembers, police officers, firefighters, doctors and teachers, as well as sportspersons, civil servants, representatives of arts and culture, veterans and Georgia’s “distinguished” elderly generation. He also wished Happy New Year to the Georgian diaspora.

Read the full statement here.