Speaker: No organization membership is worth jeopardizing Georgia’s territorial integrity

Georgia’s two main national objectives are the reunification of the country and improving the welfare of its people, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuasvili said.

Speaking on Georgian Public Broadcaster’s program Actual Topic. Papuasvili said there was no objective more important than these two goals and that all other aims should be subordinate to them.

“We have two main national objectives — the reunification of our country and improving the welfare of our people. When these are the two goals, it is very easy to weigh any decision.

“They may tell you that you should enter into an escalation with Russia. You have to consider whether this would benefit the welfare of our nation, or whether closing our borders and economic exchanges with Russia would benefit our people. It would not contribute to improving their welfare.

“By the way, when we said this four and a half years ago, when the war began, everyone was hysterically calling on us to impose sanctions on Russia and enter into an escalation. After some time, everyone acknowledged that this would have been an economic catastrophe for Georgia.

“The second goal is restoring territorial integrity. When you know that this is a priority, it becomes very easy to make decisions accordingly.

“I want to emphasize once again, and I want everyone — both our friends and our enemies — to understand this clearly: these are our two foremost objectives, and all other objectives and goals are subordinate to them.

“There is no objective more important than reunifying our country and increasing the welfare of our people. Membership in any organization or gaining the goodwill of anyone else is not worth putting our nation’s territorial integrity and welfare at risk,” Papuasvili said.