Prime Minister of Georgia H E Irakli Garibashvili
Doha: Prime Minister of Georgia H E Irakli Garibashvili considered the Qatar Economic Forum as an important opportunity to discuss all the challenges facing the world, which is witnessing major changes at all levels. He stressed that these changes require serious discussions.
In a dialogue session on the Ukrainian crisis within the activities of the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg, Garibashvili said that the successive events that the world is witnessing now, and the challenges it faces, have made the world different from what everyone used to know, which requires serious discussions on
this issue.
He pointed out that in 2008, Georgia was exposed to the same crisis that Kiev is currently facing when Russian forces invaded parts of Georgian lands “and occupy them until now.”
He added, at that time, no one had noticed that a sovereign country had been subjected to a Russian invasion and occupied some of its lands, where there was no logical reaction, no restrictions were taken on Russia or reactions to it. He noted that Georgia’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war must take into account that parts of Georgian lands are still under the control of Russian forces.
The Prime Minister affirmed that his country supports Ukraine, from a political point of view, on all international platforms, whether in the United Nations or other international forums, and has announced its position in this regard.
However, he pointed out that Georgia supports the restrictions imposed on Russia, but Georgia will not be used as a way to pass these sanctions, given that Tbilisi cannot set national restrictions towards Moscow for the obvious reason, which is the security and economic challenges facing the country.
Georgian Prime Minister also pointed out that this position does not include his country only, but there are other countries that have not placed restrictions on Russia on the national scale due to the similar circumstances they also face.
Georgian Prime Minister addressed the issue of his country’s accession to the European Union, stressing that it has achieved a large percentage of the accession criteria, and aspires to full membership in the Union.
He also said that Georgia’s accession to NATO must be approved by all member states, as the governments of Tbilisi have worked on since 2012, noting that his country has the patience and a strategic readiness to achieve this.
