Georgia aims to restore territorial integrity peacefully, says minister

Euronews: Welcome to the programme, Minister. It’s great to have you on.

Maka Botchorishvili: Hello. Thank you for inviting. Thank you for your interest.

Euronews: Now, you have been in office just for a few weeks. What are your first impressions?

Botchorishvili: Well, first days in the office – not an easy period for Georgia. We have plenty of challenges that we face. And of course, we have to handle this situation. I had a couple of possibilities to meet my colleagues, and we need quite to work to ensure that Georgia is represented and presented to the entire world and that from the correct angle.

Euronews: Now, as we speak, roughly 20% of Georgia’s territory is still occupied by Russia. At the OSCE Ministerial Council in Malta just a few days ago, you called Russia’s war in Ukraine a continuation of its aggressive actions in Georgia. How do you want to get these territories back?

Botchorishvili: Well, that is not an easy issue. Since our independence, we face this conflict with Russia and 20% of Georgia’s territories are still occupied and we have a military presence of Russia there. That makes Georgia extremely vulnerable when it comes to security challenges and facing that. This is not an easy task. But our policy is very clear: that we consider the restoration of Georgia’s territorial integrity only through a peaceful way, and that can be a reconciliation policy.

Euronews: That same meeting in Malta was also attended by your Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. Did you speak to him?

Botchorishvili: We don’t have diplomatic relations with Russia since 2008, after Russia’s invasion of Georgia. And we don’t have communication and official channels of communication with Russian counterparts. So, this is not the case in this case as well. We don’t have communication.

Euronews: One would think that Georgia and Ukraine are on the same side when it comes to Russia. Yet Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, has accused the Georgian Dream party of pushing Georgia towards dependence on Russia. What’s your reaction?

Botchorishvili: Well, we hear that speculation, that I can call these claims only speculations about Georgia. Georgian Dream is in power for 12 years now, and in this period, nobody can find anything that this government has done in favour of Russia. But today it is very popular to divide the world into white and black. And if somebody wants to make an easy negative impression about somebody, it is easier to claim that somebody is pro-Russian or pro-Putin. And unfortunately, that is the case, although Georgia has a very clear policy when it comes to supporting Ukraine.

Euronews: Let’s talk about what happened over the past few weeks in Georgia and the reason why Georgia was in the international headlines. Your government’s decision to suspend Georgia’s EU membership bid triggered protests in Tiflis and elsewhere, during which over 300 protesters were arrested and brutally beaten by police. Now, according to Georgia’s public defender, 80% of those who were detained reported deliberate punitive violence. Several opposition leaders were also arrested. Things that were severely criticised by the EU, European governments, and the United States. What do you tell these governments in response?

Botchorishvili: First of all, that is a very wrong interpretation of the Georgian government’s decision. We have not suspended the European integration process. We have not suspended negotiations because negotiations on Georgia’s membership into the European Union has not started yet because there is no EU decision on this topic when it comes to the reaction from Georgian society or protests in the streets of Tiflis. Of course, everybody has a right to protest, but right to peaceful protest. And unfortunately, I have to say that we cannot really call this protest necessarily peaceful because the violent groups that were acting with the fireworks, their target was the police force. And we have around 200 policemen injured and some of them really received very serious injuries. It is very hard to say that it is a peaceful protest. But on the other hand, if there is anything when we see that police are exceeding its limits of reaction, of course, there should be reaction from relevant parties. And if we condemn, of course, violence, it should be condemned, but it should be condemned from both sides and not just one-sided.

Euronews: So, the relationship between the EU and Georgia is difficult at the moment. The accession process had already been stopped in the summer by the European Council in reaction to Georgia’s controversial foreign influence law. The impression in Brussels was that Georgia is kind of turning away from Europe and tilting towards Moscow. What is the path forward now?

Botchorishvili: Well, first of all, we have to trust each other. Georgia’s European beat is  very serious decision. When we applied for EU membership it was not a joke. But unfortunately, that very topic always is kind of subject for speculations and the same is happening all the time. How European integration can be linked to transparency law? We call this law transparency because this is only about transparency of foreign funds in Georgia. And we had a very clear explanation for this legislation. It was nothing against civil society organisations or their work. It was about just making clear who is funding what in Georgia and to have kind of a preventive mechanism for foreign influence, negative, I would say, foreign influence. So, this is very important topic for Georgia’s stable democratic development, and that is something that we are communicating to our European partners.

Euronews: Numerous polls in Georgia show that the Georgian public is largely in favour of EU membership, even NATO membership. Now, Georgian Dream repeatedly states that it supports these aspirations. Yet relations with both EU and NATO have deteriorated rapidly, largely due to decisions and actions by Georgian Dream. Why should the Georgian public believe Georgian Dream when it says it supports their aspirations when the party’s actions seem to indicate otherwise?

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Botchorishvili: Facts. You need to judge according to facts and look at the facts. And this government made Georgia a front runner when it comes to the implementation of reforms and positioning Georgia as well advanced when it comes to the association with the European Union. This is also the same government that was sending different participations to different EU-led missions, not because we had any interests in Central Africa or anywhere else. The only interest for us was and is to show our commitment when it comes to shared values and when it comes to be together with our European partners.

Euronews: Why is it then that relations between the European Union and Georgia have deteriorated?

Botchorishvili: Well, that is a good question. What is behind all that and why? Georgia became quite a subject of criticism. But this is not new, and it has not started yesterday. If you look back, 2020 is kind of a turning point when this kind of criticism started against Georgia and 2022 was a very important date, I would say, when Russia invaded Ukraine and the security challenges increased. And we saw in Georgia that we were criticised for not imposing sanctions on Russia and we were criticised for different things. But unfortunately, there is not that fair look at, say, Georgia’s situation when it comes to countering security challenges and ensuring peace and stability in the country because there is no other that vulnerable country in Europe as Georgia is today.

Euronews: I guess the fundamental question is this. Does Georgia really want to be an EU member and why?

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Botchorishvili: Well, it has different reasons. And first is emotional connection with Europe. And it goes back to history, and it goes back to Georgia, how Georgians feel, and Georgia’s identity. And that is very much an emotional connection with the European Union. And that’s why also a vast majority of Georgians are supporting the European integration. And now there is a very practical reason why we want to be part of the European Union because of our quite complicated geography and because of our intention to be part of the Union, which is, I would say, the best Union today, best possible option that we may have in the world in terms of human rights, in terms of economic development and the many other things where you would be wishing to place your country. And it will require some efforts because this relationship is not in the best shape today. I will not lie. I will not be naive, but I believe that it is possible, and it is doable.

Euronews: All right. Thank you very much, Minister, for a fascinating conversation.

Botchorishvili: Thank you very much for your questions.