As part of his official visit to Ukraine, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili joined other world leaders in the Crimean Platform Summit, where he discussed efforts towards democratic consolidation in Georgia while using the platform to call for a stronger international stance against Russian aggression.
“Our will to fight for freedom against a common foe and our pursuit of the shared core values of liberty and democracy have always made us stronger against those who have sought to disrupt our unity,” The Prime Minister said, and further noted that Georgia is “pursuing an unequivocal consolidation of democratic reforms and sustainable economic development, all while pursuing our Euro-Atlantic aspirations.”
Prime Minister Garibashvili also discussed the military attack Russia undertook in 2008 to disrupt Georgian democratic ambitions and its western trajectory. “Thirteen years ago, the Russian Federation launched a large-scale military attack against Georgia, killing hundreds of civilians and military personnel, burning and destroying dozens of Georgian villages, instigating a wave of ethnic cleansing that caused hundreds of thousands of ethnic Georgians to flee from their homes, and subsequently occupying two indivisible Georgian regions to this day… now Ukraine shares the same fate.” He also forewarned that, “Until we resolve the conflicts in the region, Russia is bound to continue creating sources of destabilization that will creep closer towards the west.”
Noting the shared history in fighting for national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Prime Minister stated that “Ukrainians and Georgians fought alongside one another in the 2008 War, as well as during the armed hostilities that Russia inspired and engaged in during the 1990s.” He also commended the late Leonid Tkachuk, a Ukrainian who fought and died alongside Georgians to secure an independent and whole Georgia.
At the conclusion of the summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the Prime Minister of Georgia Mr Irakli Garibashvili and presented him with the first-degree order of merit.