The President of Georgia made a comment regarding the fact that the Georgian sailors have been saved from captivity of Somalian pirates. Mikheil Saakashvili congratulated the families of sailors on the good news.
“The fact that our sailors have been freed from captivity of Somalian pirates is great and important news. We constantly worked on this issue every day and there were no exceptions. I always thought about this day. We were very nervous; we hit a dead end several times, but we did not give up and accept the condition they were in. There were citizens of England and other countries of the European Union among the 600 captured persons and that is what made this situation difficult. Even those powerful governments had a problem rescuing their citizens. That is why our contacts advised us not to intervene, because our scale would not be enough to change anything. We did not give up despite such circumstances. We kept sending people to deal with this situation. One of the worst parts of this was that we could not speak about this publically. There were thousands of various criticisms towards us, including those from the families of these sailors. This was understandable, because we could not tell them about our actions – otherwise our plan would fail. Giorgi Karbelashvili worked very well with a lot of patience and delicacy. Vera Kobalia also did a good job when we sent her to interact with an international organization there several times. After we were instructed about several methods, Girogi Karbelashvili travelled around half of the world, connected with necessary people, and in the end achieved results. I think this is an example of the fact that Georgia has achieved true statehood. Our country does not have people that it can lose. Georgia is a country that will fight to the end in order to save each one of its citizens. Our government and our state do not have a more important goal and ambition than protecting the interests of our citizens.
During the past several days, I called Giorgi Karbelashvili 20 times per day asking him for updates on this situation. I exhaled with relief when I found out about the fact that they were freed the day before yesterday. I would like to congratulate the families of sailors on this success because the children, mothers, and wives are receiving back their beloved people and we are receiving back our citizens” – stated the President of Georgia.