Speaker: Recent signals from Ukrainian authorities give us hope that they are rethinking their policy towards Georgia, and its people

“The future will show how seriously the Ukrainian authorities reconsider the mistaken policy they have hitherto pursued towards the Georgian people, towards Georgia and its government,” the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, told journalists.

Papuashvili was asked what message should be interpreted from the Ukrainian Foreign Minister’s public expression of gratitude to his Georgian counterpart, and how he viewed the state of Georgian-Ukrainian relations in light of this.

“We do not do what we do to receive thanks. We do it so that a rules-based international order may function. This matters to us, and it matters to our national interests. Just as Georgia has previously supported and initiated hundreds of resolutions and various international instruments relating to Ukraine, so we continue that policy, and we have always conducted ourselves in this way, regardless of the attitude the Ukrainian authorities have shown towards the Georgian people and the Georgian state.

The signals we have been seeing of late from the Ukrainian authorities give us hope that a rethinking is underway within Ukraine’s leadership of their policy towards Georgia and the Georgian people. So let us wait and see, the future will show how seriously they reconsider the mistaken policy that the Ukrainian authorities have until now pursued towards the Georgian people, towards Georgia and its government,” Shalva Papuashvili declared.