Georgia Needs Faster, More Reliable Way to Integrate into EU, NATO, President Zourabichvili Says
By Khatia Bzhalava
Friday, May 6, 2022
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili told Deutsche Welle on Wednesday that Georgia needs a ‘quick and sure path’ toward integration into the EU and NATO, stressing that this is the path where the country sees its ‘ultimate security’. President believes that Georgia’s security could not be a war, “because we can never win a war with Russia”.
To the question: “If the European countries had acted sooner, some of the events could be prevented in the region” Zurabishvili said that she would not like to change the weight of responsibility from one side to the other, stressing that only Russia is responsible for the events.
“Yes, the European countries and the United States could have done more, could have been more vigilant, could have been more clear about what was the nature of Russia, but they are further away than we are. They don't have the same experience. And that doesn't change the fact that there is the only one responsible and that is Russia,” Zourabichvili told DW.
The Georgian President said in the interview that the Georgian Government was being ‘realistic’ about what it could do for Ukraine at this stage of the war, adding that ‘Ukrainians sometimes are asking more and more from their partners’.
“Ukrainians would like to receive arms from Georgia, to have Georgia opening a second front. All of that is not possible. The government is just more realistic about what Georgia can do at this stage, having two occupied territories, one of which is now talking about a referendum to join Russia. So clearly, we have to be careful because we don’t have many means, and nobody would be ready to support Georgia in the same way. But that does not change the level of solidarity that we have”, the President said.
Zourabichvili said that Georgia is fully applying sanctions, stressing that the consequences of this action have been already seen in the Georgian economy. She clarified that the Georgian Government is not adding to the existing sanctions, “which we are complying with, and sometimes overly”.
“We’re not adding national sanctions. We do not know very well what would be the additional national sanctions that Georgia could inflict upon Russia,” Zourabichvili said.
