2017-02-18
Georgia is a country striving to be a member of the European family and the Euro-Atlantic community. A country building a stable future despite all challenges, - stated the Prime Minister of Georgia during a panel discussion "The Fault Lines of Eurasia". Respective event was held within the framework of the 53rd Security Conference n Munich.
According to Giorgi Kvirikashvili, challenges facing Georgia are quite serious.
" Georgia's territorial integrity is violated, and two of our historic territories are occupied by Russia, but even against this backdrop, we try to stay consistent, first of all, with our foreign policy goals. Also constructive to preparing ground for a long-term solution of our problems.
Georgia signed the Association Agreement very recently with the EU, and part of that agreement is DCFTA. Our integration with NATO structures is increasing. We are part of peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan. We are one of the largest contributors. We are participating in Central Africa peacekeeping operations with the EU. We are gradually becoming part of the European order. This is not a loud word because Georgia is building a country with systems closely in line with European standards" - was indicated by Giorgi Kvirikashvili.
In his speech the Prime Minister also addressed regional cooperation as a vital tool for ensuring stability in South Caucasia.
The Prime Minister indicated that regional projects linking Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey through the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project is one of the examples of such cooperation. According to him, this initiative creates new opportunities arising from the Silk Road's "One Belt-One Road" initiative linking Europe and Asia.
" Georgia is a Christian country on the furthest eastern flank of the EU and Europe. Historically, we are a European country; we are a country that has free trade agreements with all our neighbors, the EU, and very recently, we finalized free trade negotiations with China. So we are a country of 3.8 million, with an open, free economy. Just several days ago, the Heritage Foundation published new results of rankings, and Georgia is the 13th freest economy in the world. We are 16th in doing business ranking, according to the World Bank. We have very strong positions in democracy rankings, and we are gradually improving according to our Association Agreement guidelines", - was noted by the Prime Minister.
Pursuant to Giorgi Kvirikashvili, it is important that Georgia's foreign policy aspirations define nation's quite extensive internal reform agenda.
According to the Prime Minister, education was set as the number one priority for the country, matching the gaps between demand and supply of the education system.
" We set professional education as a high priority according to the German-Swiss dual education system. We set governance reform as one of the highest priorities, taking experience from Estonia's on e-governance, unified front office, one stop solution concept, and we have liberalized our tax system. On January 1, 2017, we abolished profit tax, taxing only dividends. We are massively investing in infrastructure modernization. Again, we have important regional projects, as we are the crossroads between Europe and Asia, Russia and the Middle East.
Thus, regional cooperation and regional stability remain the cornerstone of stability in our region. Against this quite challenging backdrop, we are trying to give some example of using all resources to create inner stability in order to provide long-term development prospects for our countries", - was noted by the Prime Minister.
During the discussion Giorgi Kvirikashvili also addressed the relations of Georgia with Russia and NATO. The Prime Minister recalled August War of 2008 that resulted in occupation of the pat of Georgian soil. According to him, Geneva International Discussions format was set up. He indicated that international organizations, the OSCE, the EU and the UN are engaged in the negotiations, but, unfortunately, very little or almost no progress was achieved for several year.
"The cornerstone principle for bringing stability not in our region but throughout the continent is territorial integrity and revisiting borders of the countries is extremely dangerous. So we are in a situation now, when we have fences on our territories, we have ethnic Georgians are captured almost every day for casually crossing the so called "borders", where ethnic Georgians are deprived of the right of acquiring mother language education. Despite our very constructive and consistent approach and steps, especially starting from 2012, we had some progress in economic dimensions, but we had absolutely no progress in political dimensions. We have treaties of integration with so called Abkhazia and South Ossetia; we have swallowing of law enforcement and military structures of Abkhazia and South Ossetia into the Russian administrative space. And this process is going on. What is the remedy or the solution?
Unfortunately I have no answer. The only virtual answer I can give will be the unity of the civilized world against threats like these", - Giorgi Kvirikashvili stated.
According to the Prime Minister of Georgia, the NATO membership is not something that the nation is preoccupied by, but this is a family of countries with certain values and principles where Georgia feels it belongs.
"This is not a foreign policy aspiration for Georgia, but it defines the existential needs for Georgia and it defines the internal DNA for Georgia's reforms. So NATO is something we believe we belong to and the European family is we believe we belong to. And we are very gradual, very consistent, but also very patient. And we believe that there will be, some day, a window of opportunity for Georgia, provided, we stay consistent and dedicated on this path. But we are also constructive. We try to send messages that we don't want any membership for hostility, we want our territorial integrity to be restored and we want our sovereignty to be realized. Sovereignty is a sovereign decision of a nation to belong to one or another club. And we have made our decision", - Giorgi Kvirikashvili noted.
Prime Minister of Georgia took part in the discussion "Fault Lines of Eurasia" alongside with the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Estonia.
Prime Minister's Press Office