Commenting on developments in Ukraine, Georgia’s PM Irakli Garibashvili said on March 13 that Tbilisi “condemns infringement of state sovereignty” and added that his government pursues “pragmatic” and “firm” policies and he has no intention to “compete with anyone in making radical statements.”
“This is really regrettable and we are really concerned about what is happening today in Ukraine,” PM Garibashvili said during a meeting with students in the Tbilisi State University.
“Ukraine is our friendly country; Ukrainian people are our friends and personally I am worried about what is happening in Ukraine. We support the Ukrainian people’s decision and respect their choice to build European, democratic and civilized country; and we condemn any infringement of state sovereignty,” he said.
“This is our firm position – a position of a friendly country and I am not going to compete with anyone in making radical statements. We should have pragmatic, reasonable and at the same time firm attitude towards any issue,” Garibashvili said.
He also said that “even against the background of developments in Ukraine”, Georgia’s western partners hail “constructive policy” pursued by Georgia in respect to Russia.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) this week, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said that the failure of the international community to “stand up” to Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 let Moscow think it can get away with seizing Crimea.
"The fact that the 2008 scenario used by Russia in Georgia — when a sovereign state’s territories were seized with military force — is now being employed again in 2014 against another country proves that in the last six years both we and our partners have failed to stand up to Russia," Margvelashvili told AFP.
"Today we can state with regret that we and the international community have failed to use these six years to force Russia to realise that actions like these are wrong and ineffective," he said.
“A strong and unequivocal response must be formulated that means such scenarios can never be repeated and that the idea of a sphere of influence is dropped,” Margvelashvili said.
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