At the commencement of the Meeting, President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili asked Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Davit Bakradze to inform the audience about the response of the international community to the situation with Abkhazia.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Davit Bakradze informed the audience: for the last two days, the Georgia side has been using all the diplomatic means to secure adequate international reaction. In this respect, the UN has held a discussion and made public statements in support of Georgia's territorial integrity and in condemnation of Russia's decisions. Besides, in this respect we asked that a Special UN Security Council Meeting be held to which we relieved support from the partners. Today, OSCE held the OSCE Permanent Council Meeting, at which the relevant statements were made by the representatives of the European Union, the United States of America and other partner countries. We also requested that a Special OSCE Permanent Council Meeting be held and Berlin's special diplomatic instrument be applied that usually applies in special cases within the OSCE. A very clear statement was made by NATO General Secretary that was not his personal statement. It is his competence to voice the position of the North Atlantic Council and NATO structures. We officially requested that special meetings be held in a NATO-plus-Georgia, 26-plus-Georgia format, to discuss the issue. We also requested that the issue be discussed at the NATO-Russia Council Meeting to be held at the end of April. In the second half of the day today, we are expecting the relevant EU statement and on the next days - the statements of the EU officials. Mr. Solana's statement has already been issued. Now we are working to make sure that the matter is discussed by all the structures dealing with foreign policy and security issues and EU-Russia relations. Now the members of the European Council are gathering signatures and very soon we are expecting a very good statement to come from the European Council. In the second half of the day, the General Secretary and others will also make statements. Besides, based on mutual relations, we are working with all the partner countries to make sure that they very openly evaluate the step that Russia made yesterday.
President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili thanked the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia for the information, saying: the statement of the NATO General Secretary is of primary importance. The statement pointed out, in no uncertain terms, that on the part of Russia it was a provocative step, violation of sovereignty, that NATO and the international community request not just softening but review and reversal of the step. The overt support from the European Union for Georgia's peace plan, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders is also very important.
I'd like all to understand very well that there is no instrument that can derail Georgia's aspirations to become a democratic, successful state and united country. There is nothing that can stop the process of a peaceful unification of our country. We are continuing our work with all the partners. We are expecting and requesting that the Russian Federation review all the decisions that encroach upon the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia. I want everyone to know that our efforts will be bent towards peaceful unification of Georgia and mobilization of the support of the international community. However, we need not only statements but also serious diplomatic actions from all of our partners and friends, which we hope will be taken within the next few days and weeks.
The President of Georgia assigned Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia D. Bakradze to travel to the United States of America and State Minister of Georgia Giorgi Baramidze - to Germany, France and other European countries on a special visit to hold the relevant consultations.
We are ready, the President of Georgia continued, to hold consultations with the Russian Federation and continue working with all the parties in connection with the peace plan. I am astonished and concerned at the provocativeness of this step of Russia but am very content that for the first time in history the European Union, NATO and our traditional partners made such strong reaction that came quite unexpected for Russia, too. Russia has accustomed to the fact that no matter what she does, many in the international community are silent. I thing yesterday they have started to seriously reconsider and reverse the policy. Therefore, we must put on self-control, endurance but at the same time stay bold and courageous.
Then the President of Georgia asked Prime Minister of Georgia Vladimer Gurgenidze to provide information about the situation in pension payments and other social issues.
Prime Minister of Georgia Vladimer Gurgenidze said: we had plans to pay 70-Lari pensions from October this year but funds have been made available to do it from this month. Besides, we have started issuing the vulnerable insurance vouchers across the whole territory of Georgia. In particular, the vouchers have already been issued in Tbilisi and Imereti. We have started issuing them in Racha and Kakheti. Gradually, the process will cover other regions as well. In this respect, the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Finance of Georgia were assigned to provide proposals in two weeks on applying the vulnerable allowance program to more people. Of course, there has to be certain gradation but I believe that adjusting it to 70 thousand or any other counts is very artificial. We need to introduce a stage-based gradation that will cover more people under these programs. The question will be discussed at the Government Meeting, after which we'll present the plan.
After that, the Prime Minister of Georgia touched upon the problems that he learned about while on a visit to Svaneti, saying: one of the most pressing problems is the need for rehabilitation of roads. It is vary hard to encourage the development of tourism or use any other traffic in the region without communications in a rough relief. We'll have to make available additional funds to strengthen the embankments at some problem points in Lentekhi Region, as the funds allocated for this purpose won't be enough. The region needs 2-3 buses. In this respect, I asked Tbilisi City Hall for help at least as a temporary measure. The schools there face a lot of problems. The special programs of the Ministry of Education and Science envisage specific funds, and they have been instructed to apportion the funds to the schools on site, according to their judgement, as they are aware of the local needs better than we do and I think they'll do it so. Besides, with the Ministry of Finance we discussed the opportunities for making additional allocations towards repairing a few schools. As for providing schools with sports equipment, the program is underway and will fully cover all the schools across Georgia.
Unfortunately, there are problems and interruptions in power supply caused by two reasons. One reason is the misunderstanding over voucher issue-cashing, and the Ministry of Labour Health and Social Affairs is already working to remedy the problem. The other reason, a more important and longer-term one, is the private company's plan to replace all the main power transmission line bearing poles in the region. The project is to be completed in the summer. It's about replacing some 1000 poles to rehabilitate the lines. This is a painstaking process and quite costly for the company. However, according to their information, the company is doing the work, concluded the Prime Minister of Georgia.
Organizational Department of the Chancellery of the Government of Georgia