Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili honoured the head of the Special State Protection Service of Georgia (SSPS) and other agency personnel with state awards during the service’s 31st-anniversary celebration, based on joint recommendations from Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili.

President Kavelashvili expressed gratitude to the State Protection Service leadership, personnel, staff, and veterans for their “loyal and conscientious service.”

The president awarded the Order of Honour, Georgia’s state decoration, to Special State Protection Service Chief Anzor Chubinidze for his “exceptional contribution to strengthening law and order.”

Four agency employees received the Medal of Honour for worthy state service, while five personnel were awarded the Medal for Military Courage for fulfilling their military duties with “valour and bravery.”

“The role of the Special State Protection Service in ensuring stable and secure functioning of the state system is invaluable,” President Kavelashvili declared during the ceremony.

“You have undertaken the most important, honourable, and simultaneously most difficult mission – to protect state security and be the guarantor of national peace. It can be said with pride that each of you successfully fulfils this mission,” Kavelashvili added.

The president attended the event alongside Prime Minister Kobakhidze, Parliament Speaker Papuashvili, and government representatives.

Kavelashvili thanked the agency’s leadership, personnel, staff, and veterans for “standing guard over the country’s security,” crediting their service for making the Special State Protection Service “an institution of the highest level of modern standards.”

The president paid special tribute to fallen heroes, stating: “Special gratitude in the name of every Georgian belongs to the heroes who died while performing their service duties. I want to honour their bright memory – we must always remember their deeds and heroism.”

Emphasizing the service’s critical role, Kavelashvili noted: “You have undertaken the most important, honourable, and simultaneously most difficult mission – to protect state security and be the guarantor of national peace. The peace and security that our fellow citizens feel daily is precisely the result of your professionally performed work, great loyalty, and heroism and dedication carried out unnoticed by the broader society.”

The president outlined Georgia’s national objectives: “Our goal is for Georgia to be a united, strong, secure, and developed state. Achieving this goal is, of course, impossible without you. You are people whose work requires loyalty, dignity, and professionalism. It is precisely your loyalty to these values that create a solid foundation for the country’s secure future.”

Concluding his remarks, President Kavelashvili called on Special State Protection Service personnel to “always remain united” to leave future generations a strong state, wishing each of them “peace, strength, and success.”

During the ceremony, the president also toured the Special State Protection Service infrastructure and observed demonstration exercises, including simulated building attacks and evacuations of protected persons, as well as convoy attack scenarios and canine unit demonstrations.