The Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeals to the international community to duly assess and take effective action on this yet another illegal step aimed at violating Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

We are extremely concerned about the developments in Ukraine. Russia’s military actions undermine Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty as well as the UN Charter and fundamental principles of the international law that will have severe consequences not only for Ukraine, but also for the entire international community. We express strong solidarity with our friends, Ukrainian people and call on the international community to take all the necessary steps towards de-escalation and to stop the violence.

Georgia is following with concern the latest developments around Ukraine, which pose yet another serious challenge for the European and Global security.
Recognizing Ukraine’s territories - Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states by Russia represents yet another flagrant violation of the fundamental principles of international law, and in fact repeats the scenario of Russia’s military intervention into Georgia’s Tskhinvali region in 2008 and subsequent recognition of the independence of this region and of Abkhazia/Georgia, and their occupation. 
Georgia unequivocally supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. We express the hope that the international community will give its strict assessment and response to this yet another violation of the fundamental principles of international law, and to the absolutely unacceptable attempt to redraw forcefully the state borders in East Europe.

According to the Georgian Vice Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Davit Zalkaliani, the local self-government elections scheduled for 2 October will be monitored by international observation missions.
 
The Vice Prime Minister said that the Georgian government started preparations for the elections as early as in April. Formal invitations were sent to all international observer missions, including the OSCE/ODIHR EOM, as well as to all international organizations and partner countries. "Two invitations were sent, one in April, before the election date was announced, and the other – immediately after the election date was officially announced" - Zalkaliani added.
 
According to him, the leaders of the OSCE/ODIHR EOM are in Tbilisi and a meeting with them has already been held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "We help them address all organizational matters and provide them with all conditions for normal functioning, including amid the pandemic. The experience we gained from the previous elections also helps us in this" said the Foreign Minister.
 
The OSCE/ODIHR EOM will assign 350 short-term observers to monitor the election process in Georgia,  “however, it is expected that the number of observers this time will be much higher than in previous elections, as the Foreign Ministry sent official invitations to the Parliamentary Assemblies of the Council of Europe, NATO and OSCE, as well as to various international organizations” – said the Minister.
 
“We’ll do our utmost to ensure that international observers do their work safely and in normal conditions” – added the Minister.

MFA of Georgia

At the conclusive session, OSCE OA adopted the Tbilisi Declaration with 122 votes against 6. After adoption, the Speaker of Georgian Parliament, Mr. David Usupashvili reiterated that the Tbilisi Declaration consists of three main resolutions and reflects the thematic resolutions initiated by three General Committees of OSCE PA. As to the resolution initiated by the Georgian Delegation, it is in full reflected in Tbilisi Declaration.
The Speaker spoke about the problems with the resolution since the very initiation process. “This topic was not spare from the problems and today all the Delegations except the Russian Delegation supported it and it was not easy to achieve. When we started imitation and our colleagues were provided with the document on my behalf, we hardly managed to collect supporters even – 25 signatures necessary for initiation as many our colleagues had the stance that the resolution was strict, direct and clear and they feared it could damage others etc.”
As the Speaker stated, the Georgian Delegation to OSCE PA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Georgian Embassies devoted themselves to ensure support of the resolution. “So, the result we enjoy now was not achieved without problems. In fact, we achieved it overcoming lots of problems and it is natural. So, we need to function and we need the state as the functional political system to serve our country and make positive decisions”.
Commenting the ironic attitude to implementation of the resolution, he reminded the society that “OSCE PA and the Parliaments in general make the decisions written on the paper”. The Assembly has no other leverage and all the decisions beneficial for our country is written on the paper. “Also, wrong and inacceptable decisions are written on the paper as well, which create the problems for Georgia, is it in regards with the occupied territories or other issues. Such resolutions become the basic documents for further actions for the member states and political parties supporting it. In other events, when concrete decisions are to be made, they take these resolutions into account. Thus, importance of this resolution is as great as of other acts”.
As the Speaker stated, the resolution has no legal force and thus, it will not result in withdrawing of Russian Army from occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia. “But this resolution will entail problems for Russia in making further aggression steps and the world will better support Georgia in counter measures which shall be undertaken by us”.