Beka Davituliani, a member of the Parliamentary majority in the Georgian legislative body, on Monday said Europe needed to have a “stronghold like Georgia” in the South Caucasus region, while the country needed to receive the European Union membership candidate status and become a full member of the bloc.
Davituliani claimed the Government had “known in advance” that the topic of the candidate status “was going to become a kind of incentive for the domestic radical opposition”.
He said Georgia deserved the status as it was “definitely ahead” of Moldova and Ukraine - fellow countries who applied for EU membership in 2022 - leading to “dissatisfaction and resentment” when the bloc granted the status to the latter two but only a European perspective to Georgia.
He also cited “interests” of logistics and energy corridors through the South Caucasus for the EU, and said Europe “needed” Georgia as a “family member” as well as for “pragmatic interests”.