Georgian PM highlights “protection of national interests” behind Gov’t decisions

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday said his Government was acting by “protecting and taking into account the country’s national interests” over positions taken with regard to the war in Ukraine, in comments at a press conference with Josep Borrell, the visiting European Union High Representative.

Garibashvili noted Georgia had joined “more than 500 resolutions” in support of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion of the country.

I would like to remind everyone that Georgia is neither a NATO member nor an EU member. Today, our country is acting by protecting and taking into account its own national interests. Twenty percent of our country is occupied”, Garibashvili said.

The Government head outlined the policy of non-recognition of Georgia's Russian-occupied territories as “one of the main priorities of our foreign policy”, and further pointed out the “resolutions and statements that we do not join, we do so based on our national interests”.

We take into account the policy of non-recognition of the [Russian] occupied territories of our country, we measure the dangers and risks and believe me, we have only this motivation. In other cases, related to general issues related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, democracy, human rights, we fully join and are of the same opinion with the European Union”, he noted.

The PM also said “not a single sanctioned [Russian] airline and not a single sanctioned plane is flying in Georgia”, and stressed his Government was “working absolutely cleanly and transparently” over the matter.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the aggression and the ongoing war have changed the agenda of the whole world. The order based on international rules is changing, which is certainly a big challenge for our country as well”, he told the briefing.

“I will not hesitate to say that we are in a special situation, since 20 percent of our country is still occupied and Russian occupation troops are stationed on our territory. We went through the war [with Russia] in 2008, it was a devastating war”, Garibashvili said.

Garibashvili highlighted the “difficult” geopolitical situation by saying that “not only our region and our country, but Europe as a whole, the continent of Europe has not faced such a challenge since World War II”.