Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili addressed the 3rd Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimea Platform, hosted by Riga, Latvia on October 24.

In his remarks, Papuashvili extended his wishes for peace and rapid recovery to the Ukrainian people in their war-torn nation.

“We have been witnessing the devastating war for more than two and a half years that many thought could never return to Europe. Russia’s large-scale, unprovoked war against Ukraine has shocked the world. From the very first day, we Georgians have stood in solidarity with our Ukrainian friends, as few know the pain of war and the value of peace better than we do.

The horrific conflict in Ukraine has acted as a wake-up call for many countries, reminding them that peace is both precious and indivisible, yet fragile. Europe, which has long been a bastion of peace and stability, has become a hotbed of large-scale military conflict. We warned our partners that the international systems that failed to prevent wars in Georgia and now in Ukraine would not provide a framework for fair and sustainable peace. The awakening that followed these conflicts has prompted many of our allies to reassess how to prevent such tragedies in the future. We were among the first to understand what it means to live with frozen conflicts resulting from mere temporary truces.

A truce cannot guarantee sustainable peace; therefore, simply freezing conflicts does not provide reliable assurances of lasting tranquillity. It is encouraging that we are now exploring future solutions for conflict resolution, grounded in the principles of fair and sustainable peace. These solutions should also be endorsed by a corresponding international framework that can facilitate and maintain such peace.

With our size and capabilities, we share this responsibility and must strive for better peace, supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence to ensure a just resolution to the ongoing war. We wish our Ukrainian brothers and sisters peace and a profound restoration of all that has been devastated by the conflict,” stated Shalva Papuashvili.

The International Crimea Platform, established by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, serves as an international coordination mechanism aimed at restoring relations between Russia and Ukraine by reversing the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.