Brussels, 23/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - The president of Georgia, Mikhaïl Saakashvili, has urged the EU to use its good strategic partnership relations with Moscow to put pressure on Russia so that it respects the ceasefire signed after the conflict in summer 2008 and withdraws its troops from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In exchange, Georgia takes the unilateral commitment “never” to use military force but only political and pacific dialogue to recover these two republics that are illegally occupied by Russia, Saakashvili told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 23 November, the seventh anniversary of the Rose Revolution of 2003. “Georgia is committed to a peaceful solution. Georgia will never use force to roll back the Russian occupation and to restore its control over the occupied territories, even if the UN Charter would allow us to do so”, the Georgian president told MEPS. In the event of attack on the remaining 80% of its territory, it will of course make use of its right to self-defence, he said. Tbilissi is ready to enter into “deep and comprehensive dialogue” with Moscow. However, the international community - the EU and the United States to the fore - must help to create conditions for such dialogue, signifying to Russia that its behaviour in South Ossetia and Abkhazia (which, with Moscow's support, has proclaimed its independence) is “untenable”, Saakashvili said. The Georgian president pronounced a long invective against the former Soviet Union and Russia today, accusing the Red Army of “ethnic cleansing” on Georgian territory.
On the subject of Georgia's “European destiny”, Saakashvili was not very specific about his country's European ambition. “We want to do whatever we can do to achieve our European destiny”, he said, without, however, stating loud and clear that the long-term strategic objective was EU membership. Georgia, however, has never hidden its ambitions. It considers it is a European country with the vocation of one day joining the EU. Despite its turbulent history and the oppression that it suffered under the USSR, “Georgians have never ceased to feel deeply like Europeans”, he said. Tbilissi is part of the beneficiary countries of the European neighbourhood policy (ENP) and also of the Eastern partnership. In July of this year, Georgia also began talks with the EU with a view to sealing an association agreement. Talks on a free trade area may be initiated in the months to come, Saakashvili said. An agreement on facilitating visa issuance procedures was signed on 17 June this year. On Monday 22 November, the EU and Georgia signed an agreement on the re-entry of illegal immigrants. (H.B./transl.jl)