The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili attended NATO forum held in Brussels. Mikheil Saakashvili held a meeting with the President of Lithuania within the frames of business-forum format.

Russia-Georgian relationships and partnership between Georgia and North-Atlantic alliance were discussed during the meeting.

Mikheil Saakashvili met the Polish Foreign Minister Sikorsky as well.

At the forum dedicated to Georgia the existing situation in our country was discussed. The forum was named - "Six months after Georgia-Russian war". The President of Georgia initiated the meeting and it was closed, but still it was attended by great number of people among them - Richard Holbrook, Barack Obama's special representative. They spoke about Georgia's relations with Russia, NATO and EU. As Holbrook stated, it's impossible to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The high ranking US official reaffirmed America's support towards Georgia's territorial integrity.

A US senator attending the meeting in Brussels spoke about the necessity to renew the NATO-Russia relationships. Later McCain mentioned a six point Sarkozy-Medvedev accord and expressed his great concern about non-fulfillment of the above-mentioned agreement. "I welcome good relationships between Russia and US. It is a very good moment to start the negotiation process. I believe that everyone must support NATO-Russian commission, because it means continuation of the dialogue. I am greatly concerned about the fact that Russia continues to violate Sarkozy-Medvedev peace accord. To my mind it is unacceptable. We do not want conflicts, we wish every country to be free and independent", John McCain stated.

The President of Georgia answered the questions given by foreign journalists after the meetings.

We had done everything to avoid the war. We worked a lot with diplomats and our partners. Unfortunately no one expected that it would really happen. Nobody will be able to change the border lines of our country by force. We are a European country and we actively cooperate with the EU countries, we together analyze the results of the Russian aggression. We must always be ready. This was a disappointment for everyone, we continue to cooperate with EU and US in post-war period. If anyone supports the occupation of a country the problems will never be arranged in Europe because this is not a problem of Georgia only - it is a problem of Europe as well", Mikheil Saakashvili stated.

Sergey Lavrov spoke about the regime change in Georgia at the conference held in Brussels.

The number one diplomat of Russia criticized international organizations and blamed them for inadequate evaluations. His severe tone touched the North Atlantic alliance as well. The President of Georgia responded to Lavrov's statement.

"Lavrov did not say anything new, this is Putin's policy. Their policy is to tear Georgia into the peaces. This is what they need in Georgia and Russia talks about it openly. We will continue development process, to maintain and develop our economy.

I liked most that for the first time Georgia is institutionally tied to EU, it seemed impossible to dream about it a year ago. First that we will hopefully adopt is free trade regime. Yesterday a chance for visa-free regime EU was first mentioned.

Besides, a principle decision will be made on the Nabucco project, Nabucco ten times increases the strategic importance of Georgia", the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili stated.

Press Office
of the President of Georgia