President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili
I would like to greet our guest, the Lithuanian president, our friend Valdas Adamkus. Lithuania has a special significance for Georgia and evokes special emotions in me and the generation that has entered public life since independence and as a result of independence.
We used to share the same slogan: for your freedom and for our freedom. Lithuania was the flagship of the independence movement in the Baltic states, just as Georgia was the flagship of the independence movement in the post-Soviet area, in our region and beyond. We were delighted to see how Lithuania was the first among the former Soviet republics to declare despite tremendous pressure and severe measures from the Soviet empire. The day when Lithuania declared independence was one of the most important days for me because I realized that Georgia would be next. Afterwards we went through many trials and tribulations together.
The Soviet empire was all too eager to give Lithuanians and Georgians automatic rifles and other types of weapons. Unlike us, luckily, the Lithuanians refused to take these automatic rifles from the Soviet army. They had no arms at the time they were being provoked - rubber clubs were the main weapon used in the struggle for independence in Vilnius at the time - and they did not rise to the bait. We, because of the inexperience of the politicians who were in power at the time, were very pleased to take these weapons, which were later used to unleash a civil war that reversed Georgia's progress.
When independence was regained, Lithuania and Georgia had similar revenues. In fact, Georgia was ahead of Soviet Lithuania in some respects. Today Lithuania's per-capita income is - depending on which figures you use - three or four times Georgia's income, or even five times according to some figures. This happened because we spent those years destroying our country, whereas Lithuania and its people were busy building their country. I think that the Rose Revolution has changed that. Since the revolution, Georgia has begun to develop in the same way as Lithuania did in those years. That is why, for us, Lithuania is not only a friend but also a very important partner who is sharing its experience with us in the process of development. We want to draw on each other's experience, especially we want to learn from Lithuania's experience.
Lithuania is one of the main voices in the EU. It is a member of both the EU and NATO and is helping Georgia strengthen its position at NATO. I think that this is a moral voice which is being heard at a time when not all the European countries are supporting Georgia to the same extent. At a time when Europe has many problems of its own, Lithuania has consistently supported Georgia throughout this period.
President Adamkus is the author of the three-plus-three initiative: the three Baltic states and the three South Caucasus states. Georgia is both a South Caucasus country and a Black Sea country. As part of this initiative, I am pleased to announce that ministers from the six countries - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia - will be meeting in Ljubljana in December to speed up the integration of these three Caucasus countries into the EU and NATO. That is Lithuania's initiative, that is a joint initiative by President Adamkus and myself which we put forward in Vilnius last year and which we will be implementing to the end.
I am also pleased to announce that as I speak in front of you here, the Lithuanian foreign minister is addressing a meeting involving Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland as well as Georgia. That is a new group of Georgia's friends. A new group has been set up which is called Georgia's new friends. Its function is to help Georgia integrate into NATO and the EU. This group is meeting at this very minute in Romania. Our foreign minister and the Lithuanian foreign minister have already discussed these issues there. Now the Lithuanian foreign minister is addressing a conference specially convened for Georgia and discussing specific aspects of Georgia's integration into Europe. Therefore, for us, the visit by President Adamkus is a visit by a real friend and strong partner who has offered us a hand of friendship.
We have a long road ahead of us. Georgia's economic growth has been record high this year. However, it must be remembered that our friend Lithuania spent a decade building up the country while we were destroying ours. In the past two years we have been trying to catch up with all our European partners, but we will need years for that. Though the main thing is to make it an irreversible process and the main thing is that Georgia will certainly get there thanks to the assistance we are getting from our friends.
I would like to thank you again for all the initiatives that have been put forward and to greet you here in Tbilisi.
Valdas Adamkus
I am extremely pleased, honored and happy that finally here we came as a free people to the free nation, the free nation, which has a same history behind of sixty years fighting for freedom, fighting for the recognition of human rights. Today we are together, together creating not only a better future for our own countries but creating future, I would bare to say, for the European continent.
Definitely there are a lot of challenges ahead of us. We are fortunate that with the help of other countries and freedom loving people we became the members of the international community as European Union and NATO, but at the same time I would like to say in front of the press and our friends here, Mr president, that we need you over there and we are going to do everything possible so that we can see and congratulate you as an equal members of the same community with the same goals ahead of us.
We have a similar experience of many decades looking back and that gives us an additional strength to go ahead, plan ahead and to make sure that we never turn back but look forward and come forward with new ideas and new commitments to our people. You've straggled the revolution, because the period of this we had a singing revolution, rose resolution, your evolution and others, is just an indication that we have determination to build our countries, build a sound cooperative basis and I think that our two countries really can proudly say that the commitments which we have is something which is going to produce good results. I am not going to go into details now but I see lots of opportunities for both our countries here in every field, political, economic, cultural, educational, work together and the delegation which is with me here definitely is committed to start talks here within two days we are spending among you.
Thank you very much and I am looking really forward into the future working close together with you and with your country.
Questions
Question: Mr President, do you think that the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will agree to sit at the same table under the three-plus-three format?
Mikheil Saakashvili: It is important that our joint initiative be brought to life. It is absolutely essential that the South Caucasus countries do not go back to being feudal, corrupt entities we used to be but rather become modern, democratic, European-type states.
I have read very carefully the Lithuanian president's Berlin speech, A Black Sea vision. It was a very important speech for us because Mr Adamkus spoke at length about Georgia. He also spoke at length about the region.
He cited me in his speech and that was a great honour for me. The most important thing was, however, that a EU and NATO member state, which we naively thought would close the organizations' doors for us as soon as it became a member to never again see its former cell-mate, says that we will only succeed if we are together.
I am sure that however different the political context may be, however difficult the problems related to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan may be, the three [South Caucasus] countries will be able to draw up a single policy of integration into Europe. There is no third way. There is a way towards European democracy and there is way towards instability and disorder, towards becoming a corrupt and feudal regime. Georgia has proved that democracy, the government's firmness and free elections are prerequisites of stability and economic growth. Georgia has one of the highest rates of economic growth, in absolute figures, in the post-Soviet space.
Those who were saying a year ago that Georgia would fail are disappointed. The amount of dirt thrown at me personally and the Georgian government in general would have been enough to smear all the world's presidents for the next ten years. A propaganda centre has been set up for this purpose. Yet, no-one, neither to our north nor in any other neighbouring country, can say that Georgia has failed. Georgia is being successful in every sphere. I would have preferred us to make leaps but no country has ever made leaps.
This example proves that for the countries of our region there is no alternative to a democratic, European way, the way that takes into account the people's interests. Lithuania is an example for us. Despite its problems, Lithuania has had economic success. Naturally, as every other country, it expected more. In every decisive moment when your freedom and independence was under threat all political forces were able to reach a consensus and were able to come to a joint stance on the main issues.
The Georgian parliament is debating a declaration on national consensus. Like Lithuania's declaration on the EU and NATO, adopted some time ago, it calls on all political parties to agree on the main principles, regardless of their relationship. They should agree that we will never renounce our independence, we will never renounce democracy and we will never renounce our claims to territorial unity, the main goal of every state. We will never renounce our goal to join Euro-Atlantic bodies. Parliament is debating this document. There are many similarities in the ways we have been developing and this is one of them.
In this respect, this path is a path for the entire region. In this respect, our joint initiative will be successful because the historical dialectic is mowing in this direction.
I want to draw your attention to Ukraine's example. We all remember that apart from Valdas Adamkus, then Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and the president of Georgia almost no-one in the West and in Europe believed that democracy could prevail in Ukraine. Our vision brought moral support to the people of Ukraine and, I am sure, played a decisive role in Ukraine's embarking on the right path of democratic development.
We intend to carry on in the same manner in relation to not only the South Caucasus countries but also Belarus. Georgia has been subjected to a lot of criticism. We have been told, among others by some Europeans, that we have been too radical. We will be radical when it comes to freedom, democracy and independence in the post-Soviet countries. That's the way it will be. I think that on this matter the position of Lithuania is the same as ours.
Thank you. Please.
[Question] Tengiz Gogotishvili, Rustavi-2 TV. I have a question to President Adamkus. In your country, many investigations and impeachment procedures have been launched against senior officials. An investigation into alleged involvement of the prime minister's wife in the privatization of a hotel has just begun. There are rumours about traces leading to Russian money. Do you think that the Russian money and economic relations with Russia represent a threat to the country's ties with NATO and the European Union.
Valdas Adamkus: No I do not believe that the money is going to . . . I believe that first of all moral issues always prevailed, prevailed previously and is going to prevail right now. The investigations that are being conducted in Lithuania right now is definitely in the parliament's hands and I have no comments about it at present time and I fully respect the parliamentary decision, this is the way it should be in a democratic country and the issue will be resolved at that level.
As far as money is concerned let me say what I believe. It does not make any difference how much money will be thrown or is being thrown at any case there. The sense of responsibilities and the sense of, I would say, belief in the principle of what is right, at the end is going to win and that has been proven many many times.
Mikheil Saakashvili: This question was not asked to me, but this is a common problem. I know very well how much money is being spent abroad for the purpose of changing Georgia's political landscape from within. I also know very well that some of our not-so-busy political activists have found this sort of jobs and are enriching themselves. However, this makes no difference in Georgia, no matter what programmes they broadcast on foreign TV channels, no matter what insults and rumours they spread - they have departments busy doing this - and no matter what films they make, like the one we could recently watch in Kakheti [province, apparently referring to an erotic film featuring actors resembling former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko and Saakashvili]. But this will change nothing. These are games being played by people who do not understand what national pride means. They do not understand that the nations they are playing with have dignity. Money cannot buy it. If money could buy it, the world would be very different. Our independence and our choice are not for sale. People who can be bought for money will never get support in Georgia. There are people here who can be bought for money, this is no secret. Moreover, they may not know this, but we know how much they have been bought for. We are not afraid of this. If someone buys an additional car or house with this money, that will be money invested in the Georgian economy anyway. Many thanks to their sponsors who, although in this ugly manner, are investing some of their corrupt income in our economy.
[Question] Nino Mamaladze, Imedi TV. I have a question to both presidents. You have mentioned Lithuania's experience to be shared by Georgia. Are you going to cooperate in the area of conflict settlement? Georgia has unveiled the [South Ossetia] peace plan which requires support from the international community. Will Lithuania take part in this process?
Mikheil Saakashvili: I believe that the three-plus-three format is very important. A meeting of a new group of countries which are friends of Georgia, which is under way in Bucharest, is another historic breakthrough. Several countries have gathered there to discuss issues concerning Georgia.
I think that we have fulfilled all the conditions set by NATO, and NATO should get more actively involved [in the conflict settlement process] too.
Americans have already become fully involved [in the process]. These days, an American delegation is visiting Moscow to discuss the Tskhinvali region [South Ossetia] conflict. By these days I mean yesterday and today. I also hope that the European Union too will get actively involved - there will be a summit of OSCE countries in Ljubljana in early December- because Americans led by President Bush are already taking part in the process. We have very interesting plans.
Lithuania has played a crucial role in the implementation of new initiatives on monitoring the Georgian-Russian border. Lithuania is not the biggest country of the European Union but it is indeed the most active supporter of Georgia at every discussion within the European Union. Therefore, we would only welcome a more active role played by Lithuania and our other friends.
Valdas Adamkus: Whatever happens in this region is that the legal, political, economical we are committed to work together. How difficult the issues will, be I believe that there is no way to select one subject from another so responding to your question, yes, we are here, we are going to get involved wherever our judgment, our contribution for the stability of the region, stability of the right, stability of law is involved. So that's the extant.
Mikheil Saakashvili: Thank you very much to everyone.
This translation is published with permission from BBC Monitoring, Reading UK
Communications Office
of the President of Georgia