<p>By President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili at the  international conference “International Democrat Union”</p> <p> </p> <p>Dear Secretary General,</p> <p>Dear Prime Minister,</p> <p>Ladies and gentlemen,</p> <p>It is a great honor and an immense pleasure to address you today.</p> <p>The IDU gathers political parties from the 5 continents and, however, we all come here like we would go to a family meeting.</p> <p>Because we are all united by common values.</p> <p>We strongly believe in the universality of democracy and human rights,</p> <p>We prefer big societies to heavy bureaucracies,</p> <p>We consider free individuals before paying attention to social classes or ethnic groups,</p> <p>We stand firm in our belief that open economies are the basis of global growth and prosperity, rather than socialism and isolationism.</p> <p>To sum up: we are cherishing the core principles of the liberal-democratic system, generated in this very country, several centuries ago.</p> <p>There is, Ladies and gentlemen, no better place for our family to gather than London.</p> <p>When I was living in a captive nation, enslaved by the Soviet regime, I was obliged to study at school how English philosophers and economists had been rebuked by the glorious figures of the Marxist dialectic.</p> <p>Deep in my heart - as the vast majority of my compatriots - I knew it was a blatant lie and I kept dreaming both about England, the country that had been able to produce such principles, and about the time when my own nation would finally have access to them.</p> <p>And exactly 20 years ago, the Soviet Union collapsed, unleashing the dreams of dozens of millions.</p> <p>It was clearly not the “worst geopolitical catastrophe of the XXst century” as the ex and future Russian President has put it in an interesting moment of nostalgic honesty.</p> <p>But it was not either the End of History as some observers have described it in the West.</p> <p>It was – for all of us who were born on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain - a new beginning on the contrary.</p> <p>A long and difficult road was ahead of us before we could finally reintegrate the family of free and democratic nations.</p> <p>Ladies and gentlemen,</p> <p>8 years ago, Georgia was still a failed State, a criminalized and corrupt society, suffocated by authoritarian structures and poverty.</p> <p>8 years ago, our people took the streets in the name of the very principles that are gathering us today.</p> <p>They took the streets and brought a new generation to power, a generation that has turned Georgia into a regional laboratory for reforms.</p> <p>Despite the occupation and basically at gunpoint, we still continue to build our democracy. The new, liberal reforms have turned out to be extremely successful. We have eliminated 19 % of our licenses and regulations. We have scrapped almost half of our government agencies, half of the government’s bureaucrats, and for last 7 years in all terms, Georgia’s economy has more than tripled and poverty has decreased from 52 % down to 17 %. Georgia has become the second least corrupt country in Europe according to the EBRD with the trust and confidence of citizens in institutions at par with the major countries in Europe.</p> <p>We have the second most efficient and transparent system of government in the world, according to the Canadian Center of Law and Democracy based on Transparency International data, after New Zealand. And we went from the most corrupt society in Europe to the safest country in Europe based on the last four EU surveys that study data Europe wide. So what this shows to me is that the courage of implementing reforms and freedom, when combined, work in a very efficient way. Georgia is an example to all regions and for the Arab world of what can be done.</p> <p>I just met with the Prime Minister and it goes beyond the borders of this great country, what the government is trying to do here in the UK. I think Libya has reminded all of us, especially countries like ours that are aspiring to become more European by adopting European structures that these structures are not about history, bureaucracy or the European Commission. It is sometimes difficult for the world to understand how it works, but it is all about the history of politics and political leadership. I think David Cameron has demonstrated an amazing example of Churchill style political leadership at a moment when Europe and the world needed it and most of all in Libya recently.</p> <p>I wanted to thank you for this because ultimately it is what will bring the world forward. Not just the polls, what they said last week, or how to reach zero risk in "Zero-Sum" politics which all of us are here to participate in or when you are talking about fighting for other nations. All of these things are what a normal democratic society is supposed to do.  There is something beyond these things that should make the world a better place.</p> <p>And I think that it is especially important that these principles are applied after the Arab Spring, these principles applied in the newly-liberated Libya, these principles applied to all of us that are trying to break out from the cold and become more civilized, open-minded, and free societies.</p> <p>Again thank you for all of that and thank you for your attention.</p> <p> </p>