As you may know, Dmitry Shashkin will take the position of the Minister of Defense in the new government.

Dimitry Shashkin is a very experienced leader.

I would like to remind you that he has leadership experience in several significant spheres.

He came to the government from an international non-governmental sector and has led several ministries. Initially, he was the Minister of Corrections, then the Minister of Education and Science, while now, he will be the Minister of Defense.

He has carried out important reforms and changes in all spheres; he is a leader of very high qualification, and truly one of the foremost Georgian patriots.

The sphere of Defense is the most fragile and important for Georgia. 

The Georgian Armed Forces enjoy the highest authority among other state institutions of the country.

First of all, it is the merit of our officers, sergeants, soldiers, but it is also the merit of our rightly carried out reforms and course.

If not for our Georgian Armed Forces, our country would not exist today as a state, and it is a further factor of our existence and development.

Our system, on the one hand, is based on the professional and conscription army.

I would like to say categorically that we should not allow the abolishment of the conscripted army in a country like Georgia! It is a foolish idea.

I agree with Vano Merabishvili, who spoke precisely about this yesterday in the Parliament. Which country does not have a professional army that faces challenges like Georgia does?!  There is a universal conscription in Singapore, in Israel, besides they conscript men and women alike – yet we do not intend to conscript women.

At the same time, every citizen of Georgia, through either means, should be engaged in the development of the country’s defense and it should not be a privilege of a single professional. It is an axiom for each one of us.

Every person in Georgia should have affiliation with the army. Personally, I want my son to be integrated into the army through either means and go through a military service as soon as he is of legal age.

Everyone should know what the armed forces means for them and their country.

The same is true about the reservist system.

The reserve system has been created in every region of Georgia and practically all people have signed up for it.

It is one of the sources of our pride.

Every person should be able to defend their village, micro district, district, city and region.

We have seen well that every place the occupant has entered it has not left Georgians – citizens of the countries and faithful patriots.

Even the ethnic Ossetians, ethnic Abkhaz, ethnic Russians, ethnic Armenian and ethnic Georgians as well, are refugees today in Georgia.

This is why we should know well that when we face such threats, every person should be able to defend his homeland.

The transfer of Dmitry Shashkin was caused by the fact that he was the Georgian head of the local office of the American Republican Institute for many years. Today, we are beginning a very important program of integration of our armed forces into the international system, including with the United States.

The United States made an announcement about it back in January, and since then Hilary Clinton and other delegations have specified it. I would say that it is a very significant, historic, decisive program for the equipment and training of our armed forces, including in terms of overcoming the challenges.

We already have a substantial military academy, where there are American and other foreign instructors.

Several dozens of our officers are studying abroad or are preparing to study abroad, and we believe that hundreds of our officers and sergeants have to go abroad to continue their studies.

The U.S. has stated that it will assist in equipping the Georgian Armed Forces with helicopters, in the creation of an Air, Land and Maritime Defense System and it is a very important step forward.

You know that we have created a military industry – it is one of the greatest achievements of not only your ministry, but the success of the whole of Georgia. We have to expand it as well.

Besides the fact that it creates jobs and gives the country a special reserve of fortitude, it is very important for us to realize that it creates new technologies, brings development and gives birth to new ideas.

It presents the entire Georgian economy, the Georgian education sector and our country in general, with a new opportunity for development.

We know that we had different periods in the history of our armed forces. We had very honorable moments and dishonorable ones too, like the 2009 failed attempt of a coup. Some of you, who are here today, eliminated this attempt with decisive actions and I remember this very well.

Many things have been done here during Bacho Akhalaia’s leadership. It has been entirely cleared from the hesitant, old-minded, and ready to embrace the enemy elements. In this regard, the armed forces are very much cleared today.

We are building our nation today, and are doing everything so that Georgia is protected, including from such elements.

On the other hand, we have many high-level officers, highly qualified specialists in different fields – people are working day and night.

In difference from the first years, when we constantly showed the military drills and maneuvers on TV, we no longer advertise – the job is done best inaudibly, calmly, slowly and step-by-step.

It is a system, which needs to be built slowly. We have to understand that we are creating the military school from a scratch. That is why it takes some time.

The Russians have destroyed this school, as Georgians were not invited as officers during the Soviet Union, except for specific cases.

We have to manage the establishment of this school in Georgia much faster then is the case in other countries.

It will take us years, but we will create it by all means, which will give us an opportunity for every Georgian citizen to sleep much more calmly.

I believe Dima will have interesting ideas and everyone will enjoy working with him, as he is an incredibly considerate, open, and democratic and a humble person.

We need smart people here and not the ones who listen to orders.

We need people, who will confidently present us with ideas, who will openly criticize what he does not like, who will boldly express their opinion and will not agree even with the Minister, when it will be necessary – when it will be underpinned by the common interest.

This is how the result is to be achieved in the Georgian state apparatus.

I would like to once again wish you success and thank all of you for collaboration.

We have to carry on with the work that was well begun even more actively!