Parliament Speaker highlights role of legislative body’s diplomacy in 2022 foreign policy priorities

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday highlighted the work of “Parliamentary diplomacy” in his summary of the work of the legislative body on forming foreign ties throughout the past year.

Papuashvili noted the visit of a Parliamentary delegation from Georgia to Ukraine in April 2022, following an invitation to observe the sites of reported war crimes committed by Russian invasion troops in the country, as “particularly emotional”.

We met our Ukrainian colleagues and saw the brutal actions of Russia in Kyiv, Bucha and Irpin. Who, if not Georgia, knows the cost and pain of fighting for freedom?”, he noted in his summary of the trip.

“This visit was an expression of Georgia's solidarity with the Ukrainian people in their struggle for freedom”, Papuashvili added.

He also noted the legislative body would continue to use “bilateral and multilateral” platforms for a successful implementation of foreign policy priorities, and for ensuring Georgia remained a “reliable and predictable” ally for “our international strategic partners”.

The Speaker added the Parliament had made a “special effort” to implement the country’s foreign policy priorities on the backdrop of the global challenges in the past year, which he called “difficult”.

The year 2022 was a difficult year at the international level. Russia's aggression against Ukraine has cost the lives of tens of thousands of people, including children, threatened the existing world security architecture and international order, caused global instability, food and energy crises”, the head of the legislative body said. 

“Despite the fact that Russia's aggression could not be unfamiliar or unexpected to us, for Georgia - as a country of this region - a confrontation of this scale has become a special challenge”, Papuashvili noted. 

He stressed it was “important” for the Georgian Government to support “our friendly state Ukraine and its citizens” while maintaining peace in the country and protecting its citizens “as much as possible from crises arising from the conflict”.

I think that together with the Georgian Government, the Parliament successfully coped with this difficult task and the citizens will appreciate this effort”, he concluded.