Parliament official calls China “ally” over Georgia’s territorial integrity

Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday said China’s position as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council on Georgia’s territorial integrity was “important and decisive”.

In his remarks over the matter, Samkharadze noted the newly launched strategic relationship with China was “interesting” in a “political direction” as well as in the question of territorial integrity.

“China is naturally our ally, because the matter of territorial integrity is also the number one priority for [Beijing], based on the issue of Taiwan. Accordingly, in this case, our and China's interests coincide. We both want the fundamental principle of the territorial integrity of the UN and the inviolability of borders to be preserved”, Samkharadze said.

The Parliament official also highlighted the economic direction of the strategic relationship with Beijing.

“The development of trade and economic relations with China is very important for us, so that the country can take as much advantage as possible of the existing transit potential, to which we have been striving for a long time - to be a transit hub”, the Parliament official continued.

Samkharadze also added the Government saw relations with “all countries” based on the interests of Georgia and the question of “what can be beneficial”, adding in the case of relations with China the “interests of Georgia will be taken into account”.