Suggesting that we do not vote for this resolution in the Council of Europe and that we vote for it at the IPU, the UN General Assembly, and the OSCE amounts to complete ignorance of international relations, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Nikoloz Samkharadze stated at the plenary session of the Parliament.

He spoke about the visit of the delegation of the Parliament of Georgia to the annual session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), noting that a meeting was held with the chairpersons of the parliaments of 20 countries within the framework of this visit. According to the deputy, all these countries strongly support Georgia’s territorial integrity and, according to their statement, this position will not be revised.

“We had a meeting with the chairpersons of the parliaments of 20 countries – mainly African, Asian, and South American countries as well as countries of the Pacific Ocean, i.e., countries where we have no diplomatic representation or with whom we do not have frequent contact. Therefore, it is important to get in contact with them at such forums in order to provide them with the truth about what is happening in our occupied territories, what are the consequences of Russia’s aggression against Georgia, and in order for them to support the Georgia’s territorial integrity at international forums.

I can note with great satisfaction that all twenty countries – which included Great Britain and Ukraine, with whom we have daily contact — very strongly support Georgia’s territorial integrity. They stated that this position will not be revised, despite the fact that Russia is trying to achieve the recognition of the Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions in those regions, and they also asked us to strengthen our ties with them and to regularly provide them with information about what is happening in our occupied territories,” Nikoloz Samkharadze noted.

In his speech, he also drew attention to the resolution of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which concerned Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and which the Georgian delegation fully supported in the vote with its amendments.

“This ignorance is a lesser problem, but the second, bigger problem is the fact that these people pretend to be liberals and proponents of Western values while evaluating our meetings in Rwanda with racist subtexts. This once again shows their xenophobia and it is interesting how they will face their partners in Brussels, Washington, or other European capitals, or even Asian capitals after these statements, assuming that such meetings ever take place. Speaking with such racist subtexts in the 21^st century is simply an indicator of baseness and low intelligence,” Nikoloz Samkharadze stated.