Irakli Kobakhidze Delivers Speech at Sabino Arana Fundazioa Awards
By Liza Mchedlidze
Monday, January 30, 2023
The Georgian Dream Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze was presented with the award of the Sabino Arana Fundazioa for deepening the Georgian-Basque friendship and protecting democracy and human rights in Bilbao.
In his speech, Kobakhidze spoke about Georgia's EU integration and economic growth, the Ukraine war, the Russian occupation of Georgian territories, and challenges the country is facing.
According to him, the main goal of the government of Georgia was to avoid war in the country, which he said was successfully achieved.
Kobakhidze spoke about the ongoing war in Ukraine and said that Georgia firmly supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and condemns Russia's military aggression in all international forums. At the same time, the government pursues a pragmatic policy to prevent escalation.
"Twenty percent of our territories are occupied by the Russian Federation, and its peaceful de-occupation is one of the main national goals of my people. In the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, there was a danger that the military conflict would spread to Georgia as well. It was the main goal of our government to avoid war in our country in the first place, and we have successfully achieved it. Georgia firmly supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and condemns Russia's military aggression in all international forums. At the same time, we are pursuing a pragmatic policy to prevent escalation and promote peace in the region."
Georgia is also trying to play the role of a facilitator between two neighboring countries - Armenia and Azerbaijan. Finally, we believe that there is no alternative to peace and development, and all nations must consistently follow this path," he said.
Irakli Kobakhidze also spoke about economic growth and said that the 'double digit' economic growth was achieved thanks to the peace and consistent policies by Georgian authorities:
"Despite being a small country, Georgia plays an important role in the international community both politically and economically. Georgia geographically connects Europe with Asia and has great potential to further develop its transit function and capabilities. With a liberal economic policy, we provide a fertile ground for economic activity and investment in our country. Thanks to peace and consistent policies, we managed to achieve double-digit economic growth in 2021 and 2022. With this trend, Georgia becomes an even more attractive country for cooperation for all its friends and partners," said Kobakhidze.
In addition, Irakli Kobakhidze spoke about Georgia's European integration and noted that he hopes for support:
"We submitted an official application and hopefully Georgia will receive the EU candidate status in December of this year. Your support is very important to achieve this goal," Irakli Kobakhidze said.
