Parliament Speaker: Georgian-Ukrainian “strategic core” should be freed from “political conjuncture”
In an op-ed published on civil.ge, Papuashvili said the Ukrainians were the “closest people to Georgians” and the Georgian Government and citizens had offered “strong” political support, “generous” material aid, and humanitarian shelter to “our Ukrainian sisters and brothers”. Photo: Parliament of Georgia
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Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday said the “strategic core” of Georgian-Ukrainian relations should be “freed from political conjuncture for the sake of the future” of the friendship between the two countries.
In an op-ed published on civil.ge, Papuashvili said the Ukrainians were the “closest people to Georgians” and the Georgian Government and citizens had offered “strong” political support, “generous” material aid, and humanitarian shelter to “our Ukrainian sisters and brothers”.
Contrasted with the support, the chief Georgian legislator said some of the Ukrainian Government’s actions had “defied both logic as well as our common history of brotherly relations”.
For the sake of future of Georgian-Ukrainian friendship, the strategic core of our relations should be freed from political conjuncture.
— Shalva Papuashvili ???????? (@shpapuashvili) September 21, 2023
The most recent statement by Georgian State Security Service linked some Ukrainian officials of Georgian origin with our country’s domestic… pic.twitter.com/ijNq9MXpbp
This paradox of strained political relations amidst the historic cataclysm is perplexing. Given the record of mutual political understanding since our independence and cordial relations between our peoples, our joint struggle for independence is warranted to be coordinated, strategic, and forward-looking”, Papuashvili said.
“Georgians, better than anyone else, know how bitter and painful foreign aggression and illegal, albeit temporary, occupation can be. We defended our independence in three undeclared wars by Russia, as well as decades of clandestine warfare conducted with so-called hybrid means, adapted from the Soviet playbook”, he continued.
The Parliament Speaker added “misunderstandings” in Georgian-Ukrainian relations “did not originate in the last couple of years” but with successive Governments in Kyiv “sheltering” fugitive Georgian politicians who were sought for “serious crimes” in Georgia “for quite some time now”.
Most prominently, [former President] Saakashvili, who abandoned his Georgian passport for Ukrainian citizenship and the lucrative governorship in Odesa, continuously stirred political trouble in Georgia”, the articled said.
“Also, lesser known as they may be, the Ukrainian Government is also sheltering former prosecutor-general of the Saakashvili regime, Zurab Adeishvili, and the former deputy interior minister Giorgi Lortkipanidze, who is now in the centre of the new political scandal”, Papuashvili said in reference to the Georgian Security Service’s comment that on Monday claimed it had uncovered a plan by former officials of the previous United National Movement Government to cause “civil unrest” and overthrow the country’s Government using a “Euromaidan scenario” this fall.
Papuashvili emphasised that Georgian-Ukrainian relations “are and should be strategic”, but noted the “deliberate and intentional blurring” of the strategic and the political relations from the Ukrainian side.
What is especially disheartening is that these actions by the pro-Saakashvili members of the Ukrainian Government closely resemble Russia’s favourite tactics of dividing and damaging Georgian society. This burden further aggravates the great duress from the Russian occupation and continuous political and military pressure”, Papuashvili said.
He stressed “any political meddling” that “aims at undermining this strategic core” was “unacceptable, undignified, and plain wrong”, adding the two countries “must focus on helping, not weakening, each other”.