Today Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili met the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the U.S. During the meeting the President discussed many issues, including the Tsitelubani incident. Strained Georgia-Russia relationship and the issue of peacekeeping forces were also discussed at the meeting. Mr. Ban Ki-moon promised President Saakashvili that he would bring up these issues to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, although stressed that both Georgia and Russia should solve problems themselves by means of peaceful talks.

Today President Saakashvili also addressed public in the Columbia University, where he, as a president, made his first remarks three years ago and talked about his future plans and goals. This time he was proudly talking about actual results and achievements.

"As a president I made my first remarks at the Columbia University just few years ago. At that time I was a newly elected president and the subject of my remarks was the goals that I aimed to achieve after the Rose Revolution. Now there has come time when I should talk about actual results. Today Georgia's economic development indicator exceeds 12 percent that means that we are close to the indicators of the European Union. We achieved this as a result of fierce fight against corruption and successful economic reforms. As evidence I can refer you to the ratings publishes today by the World Bank, the main evaluator of the world's business climate. Based on these ratings, four years ago Georgia ranked 137. In 2006 it moved to 37th, this year Georgia is among the first 20 countries. You will agree that this is a great achievement," claimed President Saakashvili.

Press Office
of the President of Georgia