The ceremony of presenting credentials by nonresident Ambassadors was held at the Presidential Palace. The President of Georgia addressed the nonresident Ambassadors.
“Georgia has problems, including territorial ones. 20 % of our territory is occupied by a neighbor which is 100 times bigger than us. The countries which have experience of imperialism and colonialism understand what a post colonial and post imperial syndrome means, when your own territory is not enough and you want to seize someone else’s territory. We want to resolve these issues peacefully but at the same time half a million of our citizens cannot return to their homes. These territories are deserted, practically half of Abkhazia is deserted and only 6 or 7 thousand persons live in the Tskhinvali Region. I know that there is some lobbying going on, including in the home countries of some of you, about recognizing these territories as independent states. We are grateful that you respect Georgia’s territorial integrity because recognizing this lawlessness would be an international injustice. Georgia is a small country but exactly because the fact that international law means a lot in today’s world and you are representatives who have an utmost responsibility, we were able to protect these issues, we keep protecting them today and I hope we will be able to do so together in the future as well” - stated Mikheil Saakashvili.