Prime Minister of Georgia: Tbilisi does not plan to restore diplomatic relations with Moscow (video)

Georgia does not plan to restore diplomatic relations with Russia over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said:

“Sorry. No, no, no. There are no plans in this regard, because 10% of the territory (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) is occupied by the Russian Federation. Considering that diplomatic negotiations are only just beginning, we decided that we will fulfill these requests.”

He added that Tbilisi pursues policies in the national interests, but “we do not have such serious relations as, for example, with foreign policy players.”

Irakli Kobakhidze noted at the end of May that Georgia is going to return Abkhazia and South Ossetia, restoring the territorial integrity of the country, and join the European Union by 2030:

“Our Georgian dream is to live in a united and strong Georgia by 2030 together with our Abkhaz and Ossetian brothers and sisters. A united and strong Georgia must become a full member of the European family in 2030!”

Meanwhile, on the evening of October 27, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili announced the non-recognition of the parliamentary elections, which she called “Russian,” and called on people to go out to mass protests. The president said that the elections were held under conditions of total falsification and became a confiscation of votes. Zurabishvili’s statement is quoted by Echo of the Caucasus:

“Recognition of these elections is impossible. This is tantamount to recognizing the arrival of Russia here, the subordination of Georgia to Russia. All the methods that we saw in different countries were used. In addition, today's technologies for duping falsification were used. This has never happened before. We became witnesses and victims of a Russian special operation, a hybrid war that was waged against our people, against our country.”

The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, said that the parliamentary elections in Georgia should be analyzed, and every possible violation should be considered. Charles Michel wrote about this on Sunday, October 27, on his page on the X network.

Following the parliamentary elections in Georgia, I intend to put Georgia on the agenda of the informal #EUCO in Budapest.

We note the OSCE/ODIHR preliminary assessment and call on the Central Election Commission and other relevant authorities to fulfill their duty to swiftly,…

— Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) October 27, 2024

He stated that he intends to put Georgian issues on the agenda of the informal European Council.

The republics declared independence in the early 1990s, The Moscow Times recalls. No UN country has recognized them for more than 15 years. Everything changed when Georgia tried to regain control of South Ossetia in August 2008 by sending in troops. Russia intervened in the situation. After a five-day war, which Moscow called a “peace enforcement operation” and Tbilisi called military aggression against Georgia, the Kremlin recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Following the Russian Federation, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria did the same. Russia has placed its military bases on the territory of the self-proclaimed republics.

In 2022, on the anniversary of the armed conflict in South Ossetia, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that those events and the current war in Ukraine “are a single process and a common plan directed against Russia.” According to him, the West, and above all the United States, wants to “stir up the situation” in the country “through its neighbors.”

Medvedev also noted that South Ossetia and Abkhazia could be annexed to Russia if Georgia moves towards rapprochement with NATO. The Abkhazian authorities said that they want to interact with the Russian Federation and Belarus within the framework of the Union State, while maintaining “independence.” The leadership of South Ossetia was going to hold a referendum on joining Russia, but then canceled it. Georgia itself recently stated that integration into NATO continues to be a priority of the country's foreign policy.

Last August, the US, UK, France, Albania, Japan and Malta in a joint statement called on Moscow to “return” South Ossetia and Abkhazia to Tbilisi. They noted that Russia's invasion of Georgia in August 2008 “marked a more aggressive trend” in the Kremlin's policy towards neighboring countries, which is now seen in Ukraine.

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