“Sadly, international organisations, the United Nations, those upon whom responsibility rests and in whom we once placed our hopes, have proved themselves incapable. In today’s world, international law has collapsed, and these organisations are powerless,” declared Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili.

According to Papuashvili, there are foreign countries in which they had placed their hopes, but which either cannot or, as exemplified by Ukraine, sometimes do not wish to see certain conflicts resolved.

“Perhaps our international partners will at least manage to achieve something about Ukraine. I do not know what international partners can actually do here. We can see that, sadly, international organisations, the United Nations, those upon whom responsibility rests and in whom we once placed our hopes, have proved themselves incapable. In today’s world, international law has collapsed, and these organisations are powerless. On the other hand, there are foreign countries in which we placed our hopes, but sadly, we can see that they either cannot act, or, as we observe in the case of Ukraine, some do not wish to, or think differently about how this or that conflict ought to be resolved.

As for Tskhinvali, unless I am mistaken, an agreement has been ratified in the Russian State Duma. This is precisely the danger of occupation, and the enduring, harmful consequences it brings. This is precisely why it is so vital that Georgia overcomes these challenges through prudent and, most importantly, peaceful policies. We have reiterated on multiple occasions that we hold two national objectives: the reunification of our country and the enhancement of our people’s well-being. Every decision we take is in service of these aims. Had we followed the EU’s demands and gone down the path of escalation with Russia, it would have been far worse things getting ratified in the Russian State Duma today, not agreements of this kind. Had we listened to Brussels, these processes would be further advanced and considerably more grave. Look at Ukraine and see, in practice, what those risks actually mean.

Listen to Chancellor Merz, who all but made it a precondition of EU membership that Ukraine relinquish its own territories and cede them to Russia. Merz stated that Ukraine would, in all probability, need to cede territories to Russia, a move that could ultimately facilitate its path into the European Union. In circumstances where the rules-based international order has broken down, where it is proving impossible not merely to pass resolutions, but even to bring an end to the war and the killing, it is of course difficult, and resources are limited, for Georgia to exert any meaningful influence over such decisions. What matters most to us is that our policy remains directed towards ensuring that, in the long term, the fundamental interest of Georgian reunification is not undermined. On Russia’s part, this constitutes a violation of international law,” Papuashvili declared.

For context, the Russian State Duma has ratified an agreement to deepen cooperation with South Ossetia, the Russia-occupied region of Georgia.