At the Orbeliani Palace on December 17, President Salome Zourabichvili hosted the New Year's diplomatic reception, the Press Office of the Georgian president reported.
President Zourabichvili brought up the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili's legal situation. In the opinion of President Zourabichvili, events involving the former president exacerbate divisiveness. She emphasized, "I am confident, and I want to be confident, that they will allow the Georgian population to get out of this situation and allow the political forces to do what is their duty, which is to concentrate on governing, solving the issues, and clearly setting Georgia on a stable path towards Europe, toward peace, and toward advantages."
The president highlighted how difficult it is for the residents of occupied Abkhazia to maintain control over their territory, language, and identity, as well as how efforts are made to enlist them in military operations against Ukraine. To that aim, the president refuted the notion once more that Georgia would strive to de-occupy its borders by utilizing the continuing war in Ukraine. "Our goal is to reunite with our population, which cannot be accomplished by annexing territory," the diplomat stated. In response to the enormous migration of Russians, the Georgian president noted that while it is a challenge and an opportunity and highlights Georgian tolerance and hospitality, it should not be viewed as dumb. Zourabichvili advised Georgia to make sure it has laws in place to prevent such unrest.
President Zourabichvili also spoke on the war in Ukraine, calling it an all-out attack that destroyed Russia because it disclosed to the entire world what it did not want to see in the past acts of aggression in 1992, 2008, and 2014. The president emphasized that the war revived scars, ancient and contemporary, and some of the anxieties all of Russia's neighbors, especially the smaller ones, have about Georgians' responses to the Russian aggression in Ukraine. According to President Zourabichvili, humanitarian help, fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, staging pro-Ukraine demonstrations, taking in Ukrainian refugees, and other actions demonstrate Georgians' complete sympathy with Ukraine.
In his remarks on Georgia's EU candidacy, President Zourabichvili emphasized that it is a historically important step and that the nation gained the European viewpoint as a result of the Ukrainian fight in the battle against Russia. President Zourabichvili stressed the great sadness of the Georgian people at not being granted candidate status and urged Georgia's allies to remember the people's desire for the nation to have a future in Europe. While stressing that the Russian Federation is the primary threat to the nation as long as it maintains its occupation, President Zourabichvili added, "Certain organizations could believe it is safer to criticize our Western friends than our occupiers."
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