The Speech of H.E. Giorgi Margvelashvili at George Washington University

პოლიტიკა - 12:20, 02 Apr, 2016

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It is a pleasure and honor for me to be here, at this time, on this day.

Let me tell you that today we have an anniversary in Georgia. It is the 25th year anniversary of the referendum that was held about Georgian Independence. A referendum that has clearly defined that my nation with the 3000 years of history was ready to rebuild it statehood and become once more an independent member of the International family.

It was a tough choice, in a tough environment. The choice that led by the first President of Georgia Mr. Zviad Gamsakhurdia, whose birthday is today and a choice that has determined our independence, and the independence that has to become and grow into something more, it has to grow into freedom, and there is a difference between freedom and independence, and I think that talking about this issues here is most appropriate, because we are at the University that celebrates the name of one of the founding fathers of this nation; a founding father that was dedicated his life, his political vision for creation of nation that is built on the principles of freedom and on the principles of personal freedoms and to create an operational state, which is at the same time, valuing and contributing to a workable system, to a workable administration, but at the same time giving possibility to each individual to develop his or her identity, and serve the common goal, while serving their personal needs and goals.

So, I think it is the most appropriate for me to celebrate this great day for my nation; a great day of independence, independence from the Soviet Union. A great day of the birthday of our first president and talked about specifically, how we can, and how we think, and how we plan to turn independence from the Soviet Union into the freedom of Georgia and what we have to do for achieving this.

I think that being here is also significant part of that mission, because working for a goal, in a very tough environment, in a very tough timing you have to look for friends, for people, countries, systems who share the same values as you do, and develop their policy in the same target as you do, and to do this in a very coordinated and targeted manner.

So, Georgia has identified itself as once again, an independent nation some 25 years ago. And by doing so, we have declared very clearly, and bluntly, and this was repeated by every leader since this independent that we are first, culturally, we are a European nation, we are the nation of that family with that values that has created and flourished in Europe. Second, we have been targeting our state development as free, democratic state. Of course, it is not easy to do this overnight, because you have to introduce new systems, you have to introduce functional institutions in the state, but that have been identified by society, and by our political leaders. Third, we have identified the international alliances where we believe that we belong to and to which we are committed to, and this is to the European Union and this is to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This has been a tough way and a tough work that our society and politicians have to go through to achieve the benchmarks that were set to us by this institutions. Well, know we are a country that has been developed quite a successful record in this respect. We are a country that has built a relatively workable democracy, and the democracy that can change the government through elections, and the democracy that is based on principles that people elect the government and they make government serve them.

We are a country that has achieved the Free Trade Agreement and an Association Agreement with EU, and that very significant how the business and economy will be developing in Georgia. We are a country that has one of the most compatible army and the military forces in the world, compatible with the NATO standards. We are the country that has been given a decision by the NATO that we eventually will become one of their members. We are the country that is standing with EU and NATO troops on different battlefields and securing global security. We are the country with one of the lowest corruption levels in the region, with one of the lowest taxation levels in the region, with one of the highest scores in international rating for doing business, and the country that is opening a great economic possibilities for the investment and for doing business and for doing business among the states and nations.

We are a country that has located itself originally as a transit country in the region; the country that is bringing a great and very interesting solutions to some of the most interesting regional projects, projects that unite Caspian to the Black Sea, the projects that unite the central Asia economically to Europe, and vice-versa, and by doing so we have been successfully developing some of the very impressive projects like oil and gas pipelines that start in Azerbaijan and go through Georgia, and secure energy possibilities to Turkey and other markets, but most significantly will be finally located in the north of Europe, specifically in Italy. A country that has started developing the infrastructure systems, ports, railways, highways that also serve the goals of east-west cooperation, and the country that is actively reaching out to its neighbors, its neighbors like Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, neighbors in a Caspian for thinking, planning and developing interesting regional projects. We are also a country that is located one of the interesting routes of the new “Silk Road” and the new “Silk Road” concept is very much linked to Caucasus and engaging Caucasus and creating Caucasus as a one of the most friendly, cooperative, and short roots for this global Eurasian continent partnership. At the same time, we are the country that has the serious problems, the problems that have to be overcome, and the challenges that we are dedicated to face.

The first of all, this is an occupation of my country and an occupation of my country from a very strong and powerful neighbor. Up to 20% of our territories are occupied by the regular troops of the Russian Federation; over 15% of my citizens living exile in their own nation just because they are Georgians, and they are deprived of very basic human rights to go back to their homes and go back to their places which were inhabited by their assistance for centuries.

We are a country that still has economic problems and issues no matter that there are great opportunities, these great opportunities don’t get always grasped or accomplished. So, as the result of this, the GDP is not great, our distribution of wealth is not great, we have a low percentage of small, and medium business which makes economy valuable, and as a result of that, we also have the problematic level of the employment.

So, having all these opportunities, as well as challenges on our hands it is very important that we find a very intensive dialogue and partnership with countries that share the same goals, share the same values, share the same targets.

So, why I am here in this year, and why I was here in six month ago is to engage our American partners, our partners in the West in more intensive cooperation, engaged them in showing that we not only sharing common values, not only we are sharing common interests, but that some of the most problematic issues for NATO, for EU, for US couldn’t be solved if we neglect and refused to understand that the security issues and the issues of more prosperous and more stable world cannot be decided without engagement of the countries like Georgia and other countries who have made their choice and made their pro-western choice.

If we look at the tragic events that are shocking us so often. If we look at Paris and Brussels, if we look thinks happening in Turkey, if we look at this terrible terrorist attacks that are shocking us and are confusing us for the possibilities of the future, we can see that those issues are not soft, and there is no good will and no cooperation and Europe, as well as NATO does not acknowledge that locking themselves down into their own security umbrellas and not engaging other countries and not giving security solutions to the broader neighborhood that not doing this is not understanding and not acknowledging the sad reality that we are in right now. So, we try to engage our friends to convinced them that we have to be very active and cooperative and that Georgia, who has reached significant benchmarks in its democratic development, on development its reforms, on the development of its military forces has to be more actively embraced by those countries and by those institutions.

We know that there are tough times always in politics, whether it’s Europe, whether it’s NATO, but we are working very actively for this engaging dialogue and we try to show to our friends that security of Caucasus, stability of Caucasus, stability of Georgia is really a bridge for many solutions which have to be faced in Europe, as well as stability or security of the countries like Moldova and Ukraine, those are the issues of the dialogue that we are having here, that we having in western capitals and those are the issues that I’ll be happy to discuss with you.

So, basically this is my introduction, I am ready to engage in a more interactive format.

Thank you!