Daniel Fried: Robust Institutions Will Strengthen Georgia and Solidify Its Position in the European Family
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Former US Assistant Secretary of State, Daniel Fried, recently addressed Georgian journalists, discussing the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the present situation in Georgia.
Fried underscored the significance of the Georgian government's efforts in advancing the nation's integration with the European community. He emphasized that the government's primary focus should be on establishing robust institutions, which will not only strengthen Georgia but also solidify its position within the European family.
Former US Assistant Secretary of State emphasized that he doesn't get involved in Georgian politics or favor any specific political party and stressed the importance of Georgia's democratic development and the establishment of strong institutions as prerequisites for becoming a European country.
Daniel Fried drew a parallel to the successful experiences of Poland and the Baltic states in the 1990s, where building democracy and prosperity at home preceded their EU and NATO memberships.
In this statement, Fried addressed Russian war crimes in Ukraine and strongly disagreed with the notion that NATO's actions or inactions played a role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He dismissed this idea as "nonsense" and emphasized that Russia's invasion was not influenced by NATO's activities. Instead, he attributes the conflict to other factors, such as Ukraine's pursuit of independence and democracy.
"Georgian politics are none of my business. I'm an American. I don't care which party wins the Georgian elections. What's important is that Georgia builds its democracy and its institutions so it actually becomes in reality a European country. And then the institutional arrangements will follow.
I know what I'm talking about. The Poles and Balts in the nineties built their democracy at home and on the strength of that success they then said, well, we need to join the EU; we need to join NATO, and they succeeded. Georgia's position is the worst geographically, everybody knows that. We get that.
But the main thing Georgia can do is build its democracy at home, build its institutions and build prosperity based on that. And that is the way to strengthen Georgia and give Georgia the best possible future. At least that's my view.
I think that's just wrong. I think the notion that NATO is responsible for Putin's invasion of Ukraine is nonsense. That's just nonsense. The fact is, after the Bucharest summit in 2008, nothing happened to advance Ukraine's relations with NATO. Nothing. Zero. It's completely frozen, and Putin attacked anyway.
The reason has nothing to do with Ukraine and NATO, and everything to do with the fact that Ukraine was trying to chart an independent course to build, as I said earlier, democracy and prosperity at home, as well as its independence. That's the real cause.
Well, you know, better than I do. Georgia has had fits and starts. Georgia has had fits and starts in its internal transformation. Sometimes it moves ahead very rapidly and with success, sometimes it slows down. The fact is that Georgia's future with the European Union is more in George's hands than many people realize. Europe will respond to Georgia's success in its reforms at home.
Again, it doesn't matter which party is in control. Any party, Georgian Dream, United National Movement, For Georgia. It doesn't matter. What matters is what the government does. The government should do everything it can to build a state of law at home, to build a country of strong institutions that will strengthen Georgia and secure its place in the European family of nations," Daniel Fried said.
