Georgia hopes for US Senate’s support
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, September 18
Georgian lawmakers have departed to the Unites States with an initial goal to persuade US senators support the resolution, which upholds Georgia’s territorial integrity and condemns Russia’s offensive actions on the historic land of Georgia.
Georgia’s First Vice-Parliament Speaker Tamar Chugoshvili, who has visited Washington together with Georgian MPs, stresses that the US Senate’s support of the resolution about Georgia’s territorial integrity is of high importance.
“The resolution has already been adopted by the House of Representatives. Now it is very important that both Republicans and Democrats vote for the resolution in the Senate, "Chugoshvili stated after the meetings of Georgian parliamentary delegation with the US Senator Cory Gardner, other US Senators and Congressmen.
“Senator Cory Gardner promised us he will show interest in the issue and we hope that he will join the list of signatories who have already supported the resolution before the official voting,” she added.
Vice-Parliament Speaker from the opposition European Georgia, Sergi Kapanadze, also participated in the meetings in Washington. Kapanadze said the document reiterates the US support to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and condemns Russia’s occupation of Georgian territory. He highlighted the significance of the resolution once it’s adopted.
This is not the only resolution in support of Georgia’s territorial integrity that has been initiated in the US Senate in recent years. A year ago, last September the United States House of Representativesadopted the resolution to uphold Georgia’s territorial integrity.
The resolution underlined that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia had been reaffirmed by the international community in all United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions on Georgia since 1993.
The resolution stated the recognition of Georgia’s two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) as independent republics by Russia in the wake of 2008 Russia-Georgia warwas a "violation of international laws and regulations.”
“Even more so, Russia continued to erect barbed wire fences and so called border signs along the occupation line ‘depriving the people residing within the occupied regions and in the adjacent areas of their fundamental rights and freedoms,’” the resolution stressed.
Russia claims Abkhazia and Tskhinvali are independent states and Georgia should recognize them.
