Parliament official reiterates Gov’t’s support for Ukraine, says “full-fledged” European security will not be achieved if “a single” Russian soldier remains on Georgian soil

Irakli Beraia, the Chair of the Defence and Security Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, on Monday reiterated the Georgian Government’s “strong” support to Ukraine and solidarity with its “brave” people defending their country from Russian aggressors.

In his speech at the ongoing Conference on the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence in Bruges, Beraia noted that Russia’s ongoing “brutal” war against Ukraine was not an “isolated” case but a “clear” attempt to redraw sovereign borders by force.

“It is the continuation of Russia’s full scale aggression against Georgia in 2008 and the result of the failure of the International community to hold the aggressor accountable, back at that time”, Beraia said.

“As Russia wages war against Ukraine, 20 percent of my country still remains occupied with the situation in the [Russian] occupied regions noticeably worsening. Illegal military presence and “borderisation”, killings and human rights violations, de-facto annexation steps and various manifestations of hybrid warfare are daily consequences of the Russian occupation. All that, along with the Intention to build a Naval Base on our sea coast is a serious threat to European Security”, he continued.

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The Georgian official stressed that when pressuring Russia to withdraw from Ukraine, it was “equally important” that the deoccupation of Georgia and the implementation of the 2008 EU-mediated cease fire agreement, remained “top priority” on the European agenda.

“Full-fledged European security will not be achieved if a single Russian soldier remains on Georgian soil. But, apart from pressuring Russia to withdraw, it is important to further step-up support for strengthening our defence and resilience against the full spectrum of threats and increase EU and NATO engagement in the Black Sea Region considering the latter’s strategic importance for European Security”, Beraia said.

The Parliament Committee Chair emphasised that Georgia had been “resolutely” pursuing “peaceful” conflict resolution policy, ambitious democratic, security as well as EU and NATO integration agenda.

“And, as a devoted security partner and now, the candidate country, it remains committed to strengthening peace and security in the region and beyond and to work closely with the EU on the implementation of common goals and priorities identified in the Strategic Compass”, Beraia concluded.