The Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said during a panel discussion on the sidelines of the Paris Peace Forum that “Georgia managed achieve an uninterrupted, unprecedented peace and stability.”
The PM underlined Georgia’s interests in maintaining peace and stability. “We are absolutely confident that we will be able to achieve de-occupation of our territories step-by-step, through our prudent, but, I would say the word careful, but wise policies.”
Below is his full remark:
“Nowadays, the world is full of conflicts, unresolved crisis. Who suffered from this crisis? People suffer from this crisis, our population, our citizens. We live in an era of uncertainty and unpredictability. We see, for example, the war in Ukraine, which is ongoing in which we don’t see an end, we don’t see a solution yet. We see crisis in the Middle East, which is very dangerous. We see frozen conflicts in Georgia, for example. We see the occupation of our territories. And therefore there is no solution. We see lots of conflicts in Africa or any part of the world. Therefore the solution and the answer to all these crises, to all these conflicts must be peace.
We must do everything, the governments must do everything to achieve the peace. I want to take this opportunity and talk to you about the success story of Georgia, and what we achieved in the last decade. When we came to power in 2012, the status-quo of Georgia was that 20% of our territory was occupied and is still occupied by Russia. It’s one of the biggest challenges for our reality. Unfortunately, the first war which happened between Russia and Georgia in the 20th century was in 2008. It started in Georgia, basically. In the nineties, we had a civil war. We had wars in Abkhazia and Ossetia, in the occupied territories, which was supported by the Russian Federation at that time, in the early nineties. The country of Georgia has seen so many problems, and so many challenges.
After the war in 2008, we saw another big war, which just started two years ago or a year ago in Ukraine. I think this is a great challenge for all of us, because whether we like it or not, whether we try to avoid further escalations or complicated scenarios. It affects all of us. The wars affect all of us. Of course, the situation in our region, in the neighboring countries, in Armenia, in Azerbaijan, of course, is a matter of concern for all of us. Of course, for Georgia, Georgia is, I have said it many times and I want to repeat, is a very objective, unbiased, I would say so, mediator or facilitator, just a friend who trusts both countries. And we have an excellent relationship with Armenia. We have an excellent relationship with Azerbaijan and I personally have a very trusted relationship with both leaders. Therefore Georgia’s interest is to secure long-term, long-lasting peace and stability in our region.
Georgia, my government, we managed to achieve an uninterrupted, unprecedented peace and stability in our country. Under every leadership in Georgia, we had wars, we had conflicts, we have civil war, we’re losing territories. This is the only period Georgia did not have any war. We were not losing territories and we’re growing, we’re making our country stronger and we are getting richer. And this is something that brings prosperity for our population, for our people. Of course, the challenge which is related to the occupation is still there. It hasn’t disappeared. But we chose a strategic patience policy.
Why I’m saying this, because there are things we cannot solve immediately. Right? So therefore you, you need patience, you need a long-term strategy, and an action plan. And you have to follow this and you got to be consistent in achieving this plan. Georgia and the last 10 years made, I would say, a very attractive, impressive reforms and achievements. I was privileged to sign the association agreement with the European Union in 2014. We signed a free trade agreement with Europe. We got the visa-free regime with European Union.
Last year, it was historic, because we got the European perspective and just two days ago, this was another historic decision made by the European commission, which gave the recommendation to the council to grant candidate status to Georgia. This is historic achievement. Why? Because Georgia and Georgia people and my government, our ruling party, have made very concrete decision. This decision is that we want to get closer to Europe, we want to become a full fledged member of European union, and we’re moving in this direction consistently, step-by-step we are getting closer to this national plan.
At the same time, we managed to increase our economy. Our economy has tripled since 2012 according to national currency and also GDP per capita in us dollars was doubled in the last three years. The inflation is very low, together with Armenia we are the fastest growing economies in the world right now. And it’s not very coincidence. We are creating a good policies and effective governance. And because of that, we are ensuring a strong economic growth for our population, for our people, and it brings more jobs, more stability, more predictability for our businesses, for investors. FDI, for example, was a record number last year. The poverty or unemployment are at historic lows and country’s national reserves are at historic highs. So all I’m saying this is because nothing would happen if there was no peace in Georgia. Piece is crucial. Piece is something that we need to achieve. The world right now needs less warmongers. We need more peacemakers. Because right now, what we see is that we are very concerned how this war in Ukraine will end.
We’re very concerned how the situation will evolve in the middle east or elsewhere. So therefore countries like Georgia, Armenia, we are small countries, small nations, but we are very strong nations. We are one of the oldest nations on earth. And of course we are definitely interested in maintaining peace, stability and ensuring prosperity for our citizens. So my, my point is that people, nations across the world, they need clarity. They need certainty. Right now we don’t see any certainty. We don’t see any predictability. Nobody knows what will be the future tomorrow. So, who is capable of solving these kind of problems, big countries, like big superpowers and the country’s like Georgia, Armenia, or Azerbaijan, Small countries, they need to have a clear vision from the Western big power.
I want to once again reiterate and confirm that Georgia is interested in maintaining peace and stability. We are absolutely confident that we will be able to achieve de-occupation of our territories step-by-step, through our prudent, but, I would say the word careful, but wise policies. This is the only choice that Georgia right now has. I want to underline one more thing. In the last 10 years, more than 10 years, we have not done anything at the expense of our sovereignty, our territory integrity or our national interests. So we’re doing everything for our people. We’re doing everything what’s best for our people, what’s best for our future. Two years ago, we successfully mediated, I would say, this was one of the first mediation precedent that we created together with Prime Minister Pashinyan and President Aliyev, when Azerbaijan released 15 detainees through Georgian mediation , Armenia gave the maps for the mined territory.
Therefore Georgia is capable of achieving these results. I think trust here is crucial because when somebody Is offering mediation, this mediator should to be trusted from both parties. If there’s no trust there’ll be no successful mediation. And one more thing I said in Davos this February or this January is that maybe the parties don’t trust each other but there should be cooperation. Without cooperation, without negotiations, without peaceful dialogue there’ll be no peace.”
