Parliament Speaker says Georgia has maintained peace by making independent decisions

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday emphasised the importance of national sovereignty and independent decision-making in matters of security, stating that had Georgia followed external advice, the country could have faced devastation.

In his remarks, Papuashvili noted that the current global security framework had proven ineffective, both in preventing regional conflicts and in averting large-scale wars, referring to Georgia’s own experiences as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine.

"For the past three years, and most recently since February 2022, it has been evident that the security architecture in place has failed. Not only was this system unable to prevent minor conflicts - and Georgia has been an example of this multiple times - but it also failed to avert the largest war since World War II. Therefore, it is crucial that every state considers what it must do for its own security. It is precisely because we made independent decisions throughout this process that we managed to maintain peace. If we had listened to many of our well-wishers, Georgia would have beeen in ruins today. Thus, it is important to realise that every state and nation must prioritise its own interests, which, as a rule, are always about having peace and achieving high growth rates”, Papuashvili said.

The Speaker further underlined that national interests should always focus on peace and development.

“The alignment of these interests is ultimately part of parliamentary diplomacy, and in this regard, we agree with the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament that we must act in the interests of our nations and make decisions based on the interests of our people", he concluded.