Georgia aims to restore territorial integrity peacefully, says minister

euronews (in English)

Minister Botchorishvili emphasized peaceful reconciliation for Georgia's territorial integrity, addressed EU membership aspirations, and responded to recent protests and criticism.

Transcript

00:00Georgia's prospects of becoming a member of the EU are bleaker than ever.

00:13The conflict between a pro-European public and a government that sometimes seems to be

00:18leaning towards Russia is threatening to escalate.

00:22So what's next?

00:23I spoke to Georgia's new foreign minister, Maka Bochorishvili, for the Europe Conversation.

00:32Welcome to the program, Minister. It's great to have you on.

00:35Hello. Thank you for inviting. Thank you for your interest.

00:38Now, you have been in office just for a few weeks. What are your first impressions?

00:44Well, first days in the office, not easy period for Georgia.

00:49We have plenty of challenges that we face, and of course, we have to handle this situation.

00:57I had a couple of possibilities to meet my colleagues, and we need quite a work to ensure

01:06that Georgia is represented and presented to the entire world from the correct angle.

01:14Now, as we speak, roughly 20% of Georgia's territory is still occupied by Russia.

01:21Now, at the OSC Ministerial Council in Malta just a few days ago, you called Russia's war in Ukraine

01:29a continuation of its aggressive actions in Georgia. How do you want to get these territories back?

01:36Well, that is not an easy issue. Since our independence, we face this conflict with Russia

01:43and 20% of Georgia's territories are still occupied, and we have military presence of

01:49Russia there. That makes Georgia extremely vulnerable when it comes to security challenges

01:55and facing that. This is not an easy task, but our policy is very clear that we consider

02:04restoration of Georgia's territorial integrity only through a peaceful way,

02:08and that can be a reconciliation policy. That same meeting in Malta was also attended

02:15by your Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Did you speak to him?

02:21We don't have diplomatic relations with Russia since 2008 after Russia's invasion of Georgia,

02:29and we don't have communication and official channels of communication with Russian

02:36counterparts. So, this is not the case in this case as well. We don't have communication.

02:44Now, one would think that Georgia and Ukraine are on the same side when it comes to Russia,

02:51yet Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has accused the Georgian Dream Party of pushing

02:58Georgia towards dependence on Russia. What's your reaction?

03:03Well, we hear that speculations that I can call these claims only speculations about Georgia.

03:11Georgian Dream is in power for 12 years now, and in this period, nobody can find anything

03:19that this government has done in favor of Russia. But today, it is very popular to

03:25divide the world into white and black, and if somebody wants to make an easy negative impression

03:33about somebody, it is easier to claim that somebody is pro-Russian or pro-Putin.

03:40Unfortunately, that is the case, although Georgia has very clear policy when it comes

03:46to supporting Ukraine. Let's talk about what happened over the past few weeks in Georgia,

03:52and the reason why Georgia was in the international headlines.

03:57Your government's decision to suspend Georgia's EU membership bid triggered protests in Tbilisi

04:03and elsewhere, during which over 300 protesters were arrested and brutally beaten by police.

04:10Now, according to Georgia's public defender, 80% of those who were detained reported deliberate

04:18punitive violence. Several opposition leaders were also arrested. Things that were

04:24severely criticized by the EU, European governments, and the United States.

04:30What do you tell these governments in response?

04:33First of all, that is very wrong interpretation of Georgian government's decision. We have not

04:39suspended European integration process. We have not suspended negotiations because

04:46negotiations on Georgia's membership into the European Union has not started yet,

04:51because there is no EU decision on this topic. When it comes to reaction from Georgian society

04:59or protests in the streets of Tbilisi, of course, everybody has rights to protests,

05:05but rights to peaceful protests. Unfortunately, I have to say that we cannot really call these

05:13protests necessarily peaceful, because the violent groups that were acting with the fireworks,

05:20and their target was police forces, and we have around 200 policemen injured, and some of them

05:28really received very serious injuries. It is very hard to say that it is peaceful protest.

05:36But on the other hand, if there is anything, when we see that police is exceeding its limits of

05:45reaction, of course, there should be reaction from relevant bodies. And if we condemn, of course,

05:52violence should be condemned, but it should be condemned from both sides and not just, you know,

05:57one-sided.

05:58So the relationship between the EU and Georgia is difficult at the moment. The accession process

06:07had already been stopped in the summer by the European Council in reaction to Georgia's

06:12controversial foreign influence law. The impression in Brussels was that Georgia is kind of

06:19turning away from Europe and tilting towards Moscow. What is the path forward now?

06:29Well, first of all, we have to trust each other. Georgia's European bid is a very serious decision.

06:36When we applied for EU membership, it was not a joke. But unfortunately, that very topic

06:43always is kind of subject for speculations, and the same is happening all the time.

06:50How European integration can be linked to transparency law, we call this law transparency,

06:58because this is only about transparency of foreign funds in Georgia. And we had very clear

07:06explanation for this legislation. It was nothing against civil society organizations or their work.

07:13It was about just making clear who is funding what in Georgia and to have kind of preventive

07:21mechanism for influence, negative, I would say, foreign influence. So this is very important

07:29topic for Georgia's stable democratic development. And that is something that we are communicating

07:36to our European partners. Numerous polls in Georgia show that the Georgian public is largely

07:45in favor of EU membership, even NATO membership. Now, Georgian Dream repeatedly states that it

07:53supports these aspirations, yet relations with both EU and NATO have deteriorated rapidly, largely

08:02due to decisions and actions by Georgian Dream. Why should the Georgian public believe Georgian

08:09Dream when it says it supports their aspirations, when the party's actions seem to indicate otherwise?

08:17Facts. You need to judge according facts and look at the facts. And this government

08:24made Georgia frontrunner when it comes to implementation of reforms and positioning

08:31Georgia as well advanced when it comes to association with the European Union.

08:38This is also the same government that was participating to different EU-led

08:47missions, not because we had any interest in Central Africa or anywhere else. Only interest

08:53for us was and is to show our commitment when it comes to shared values and when it comes

09:00to be together with our European partners. Why is it then that relations between the European

09:08Union and Georgia have deteriorated? Well, that is a good question. What is behind all that and

09:14why Georgia became quite a subject of criticism. But this is not new and it's not started yesterday.

09:24If you look back, 2020 is kind of turning point when this kind of criticism started against

09:34Georgia. And 2022 was very important date, I would say, when Russia invaded into Ukraine and

09:43the security challenges increased vis-a-vis Georgia. And we were criticized for not

09:51imposing sanctions on Russia and we were criticized for different things.

09:56But unfortunately, there is not that

10:02fair look at the Georgia's situation when it comes to countering security challenges and

10:11ensuring peace and stability in the country, because there is no other that vulnerable

10:17country in Europe as Georgia is today. I guess the fundamental question is this.

10:24Does Georgia really want to be an EU member and why? Well, it has different reasons. And

10:32first is emotional connection with European Europe, I would say. And it goes back to history

10:41and it goes back to Georgians, how Georgians feel and Georgians identity. And that is very

10:48much emotional connection with European Union. And that's why also vast majority of Georgians

10:56are supporting European integration. Another is very practical reason why we want to be part of

11:04the European Union because of quite complicated geography and because of our intention to be part

11:12of the Union, which is, I would say, the best Union today, best possible option that we may have

11:22in the world in terms of human rights, in terms of economic development and

11:28many other things where you would be wishing to place your country. And it will require some

11:37efforts because this relationship is not in the best shape today. I will not lie. I will not be

11:43naive. But I believe that it is possible and it is doable. All right. Thank you very much,

11:50Minister, for a fascinating conversation. Thank you very much for your questions.

Category

Transcript

Recommended