The President of Georgia held meetings with European leaders, various heads of states, and leaders of international organizations. Implemented reforms, ongoing processes in the country and the upcoming elections were among the most important topics of discussion during the meetings. As Mikheil Saakashvili noted, European partners once again expressed their support of the existing course and desire for deepening cooperation in the future. The Head of State noted that after meeting with the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy that very soon citizens of Georgia will have a visa free travel with Europe, and producers and farmers will be able to export their production to Europe tax free.
“Negotiations held with European partners are very important because very soon an agreement will be signed regarding the visa free travel with the EU. Our citizens will have a chance to travel to Europe visa free, use the new airport and the new railway which will be opened in Akhalkalaki by the end of the year. We are also signing the association agreement and deep and comprehensive free trade agreement. This will give our farmers and producers an opportunity to take their products to the European market tax free, which will assist in creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. However, all of this will be decided by parliamentary elections next week because it is clear to our partners that if the course changes all of this will be taken away by the wind. The fact that some dishonest persons committed crimes in certain government bodies must not be the cause for implementing our enemy’s plans. Our enemy’s plan is to isolate Georgia and return it to the past where organized crime will prevail, and we will return to the Russian orbit while being far away from Europe and we will finally lose the prospect of integrating into NATO. Each Georgian must think about this.” – stated the President of Georgia.
During his visit to New York, Mikheil Saakashvili held a bilateral meeting with the President of Poland, Bronislaw Komorowski and the Head of the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina Sanches. Bilateral cooperation, regional security, and the situation in the occupied regions were the main topics of discussion. The sides also touched on the Georgian Russian relations, namely the threats coming from the northern neighbor. According to Mikheil Saakashvili, Russia is still trying to gain recognition of South Ossetia’s and Abkhazia’s independence by various methods from other states.
“The Russian Federation is very actively trying to gain independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Lavrov is currently here with a special mandate to do this. Russia was paying hundreds of millions for recognizing our occupied territories. We are not going to give into them by letting them achieve the goal which we successfully interfered with the previous time. They wanted to buy small nations but they ended up with only Nauru and Tuvalu. Our diplomacy was very successful in this sense, and our visit to New York was very beneficial” – stated Mikheil Saakashvili.
The President of the Dominican Republic expressed interest in the reforms implemented in Georgia. Representatives of the Dominican Republic’s government will arrive in Georgia in order to learn about the local reforms. Dalino Medina Sanches also expressed desire to cooperate in the spheres of tourism and economy with Georgia.