McCain: ‘Georgia Needs Defensive Weapons’

Visiting senior U.S. Senators said in Tbilisi on September 6 that they would keep pushing for supply of the U.S. defensive weapons to Georgia.

“We have fought for in the Congress and will continue to fight for defensive weapons from the United States to Georgia so the government can defend the people of Georgia and their freedom,” Senator Joe Lieberman told journalists in Tbilisi.

“Georgia needs defensive weapons and we will continue doing everything we can to make sure that those defensive weapons are provided to Georgia, because every nation should have the ability to have defensive weapons in order to defend themselves,” Senator John McCain said.

Together with Senator Lindsey Graham, McCain and Lieberman are paying visit to Georgia on September 6-7, meeting with opposition leaders and senior government officials ahead of the October 1 parliamentary elections.

“We will continue to fight for Georgia’s admission to NATO,” Senator Lieberman said. “We condemned and continue to condemn the Russian invasion of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”

Senator McCain said that Russia’s planned military exercises Kavkaz-2012 were source of concern.

“Of course we should be concerned about Russian ‘exercises’ near the border; they are unnecessary and they can be viewed in some respect as threatening; I hope they are not, I hope that they are exercises routinely carried out by Russians, but there is always some concern when something like that takes place,” he said.