2018-12-18
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!
I welcome representatives of the diplomatic corps, MPS, members of the Cabinet, and our friends!
It is my great honor to welcome our guests, Moldova's Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Cristina Lesnic and Ukrainian Minister of Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs Vadym Chernysh. The relations between our countries, and our joint efforts, are of crucial importance given the common challenges facing our countries and the wider region today. We are all driven by a common desire and we are bound by our ultimate goal of our countries' freedom, progress, and development.
In our rapidly changing world, now more than ever it is necessary to implement a pragmatic, flexible foreign policy responding to the international situation. We are all aware of the challenges facing our country today, and of the risks the ongoing political turbulences pose to our young democracy and small country. Georgia seeks to build a developed democracy, and this goal underpins the country's reforms and modernization. We are taking effective steps toward economic development to keep pace with the modern world and maximally adopt every innovation promising to transform Georgia into a successful state and bring benefits to our citizens.
Our Government platform rests on five principles, and the Georgian people's civilizational choice of returning to the European family and irreversibly integrating into the Euro-Atlantic community is chief among the five, and Georgian diplomacy, of course, plays the key role to this end.
That the country is strongly pursuing its path to the EU and the Euro-Atlantic Alliance is a clear demonstration of the professionalism and selfless efforts of Georgian diplomacy. On behalf of the Government of Georgia, I express immense gratitude to you and wish you further success in the future.
As you know, this year Georgia took an important step toward European and Euro-Atlantic integration. About a month ago, we held a unique format meeting with the President of the European Commission and our counterparts, European Commissioners, in Brussels. This meeting with the broad participation of European Commissioners bears witness to the EU's unwavering support of our country and reiterates recognition of Georgia's success in democratic reforms.
Equally noteworthy is the July 11-12 NATO Summit in Brussels that marked the first ever meeting between the North Atlantic Council and Georgia and Ukraine at the level of heads of government. I believe that it was also a very significant message from NATO. During the summit, the NATO-Georgia Commission Declaration was adopted for the first time at the highest level to encompass almost every priority direction in NATO-Georgia relations. Our allies commended Georgia's tremendous contribution to strengthening Black Sea security and defined concrete directions for further cooperation with Georgia in this regard.
I would like to emphasize the immense contribution of Georgian diplomats to cementing Georgia's sovereignty and the peaceful restoration of the country's unity. It is thanks to the active efforts of Georgian diplomats that the issue of Georgia's occupied territories has remained on the agenda of the international community throughout this year, and that statements in support of Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity have been at every level. In addition, Russia has been repeatedly urged to fulfil the August 12, 2018 Ceasefire Agreement and to withdraw its forces from the occupied territories. The senior representatives of our partner countries, during their visit to our country for the 10th anniversary of the August war, also expressed their support of Georgia's territorial integrity and deep concern over Russia's policy of aggression.
Last year, our relations with our main strategic partner, the US, became even closer, as clearly evidenced by the new bipartisan legislative act in support of Georgia. I would like to thank our American friends for their enormous support and solidarity with Georgia. This bipartisan legislative act raises a number of issues important to our country, places the right accents, and sends strong messages on such topics as our country's territorial integrity, free trade agreement prospects, and security.
I would like to single out the core message of the act in which it condemns the Russian occupation of Georgia's regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali, along with cases of illegal detentions, kidnapping, and human rights violations in the occupied regions, this way echoing the Georgian Parliament's resolution on the Otkhozoria-Tatunashvili List. Equally important is that the bipartisan resolution involves sanctions against blatant violations of human rights in Georgia's occupied territories.
Georgian diplomacy is also credited with the impressive steps toward deeper cooperation with European states and, most importantly, the dynamic of these relations is intensifying in leaps and bounds. In this context, I would emphasize our successful visits to Brussels where we held meetings with both EU and NATO representatives, also high-level meetings in Washington and New York, under the UN General Assembly. Visits were also held to our neighboring countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Our traditionally close good neighborly relations with Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia are growing stronger.
This year, large-scale events have been held both in the country and abroad to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first republic. The successful performance of Georgian diplomacy is also illustrated by visits of top-level delegations from different countries to Tbilisi, and the participation of many famous persons in events organized by our embassies.
It is with exceptional pride that I would like to underline that Georgia's first participation in the Frankfurt Book Fair as the guest of Honor has significantly boosted interest in Georgia as a country with a unique culture and literature, along with its international visibility and popularity.
This year has also been remarkable in terms of economic diplomacy. We have progress in our trade and economic relations with individual countries. But we need greater effort in this direction to enable Georgia to use its geopolitical location and thus maximally promote the country's economic development.
In conclusion, allow me to emphasize that the high professionalism of Georgian diplomats and their loyalty to the homeland guarantee that the Georgian state will further continue successfully defending its interests in the international arena. Once again, I thank all of you for your tireless efforts, for your work in defending our homeland's interests.
Thank you for your time.