Georgian Parliament Speaker: acting in national interest, not serving others, proved to be right path

The United States’ newly outlined national security strategy should prompt serious reflection within Georgian society and reaffirm that all the concerns and arguments voiced by the Georgian authorities have been justified, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said, emphasising that every step taken by the ruling team in recent months has proven to be correct.

In his interview with Rustavi 2 TV channel, Papuashvili noted that the Georgian Government’s actions - criticised by some but taken, he said, with national interests in mind - have now been validated.

He also addressed what he described as “illusory support” from certain European political forces, arguing that, in practice, every state ultimately prioritises its own national interests.

“The US [National] Security Strategy should make the Georgian public think about the main thing and convince it, once again, that everything we talked about was justified and that all our steps turned out to be right. The main line of our decision-making was national interest, and not serving the interests of others. This document has confirmed all this”, the Speaker said.

“National interest is decisive, and it is good that the US says this openly. In reality, this has always been the case, but only in appearance. Some European political forces have not yet adopted such an approach, showing that they care about you, that you are their concern. They will hug you, as they hugged [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy, they will wave your flag, as they waved the Ukrainian flag, they will sing your anthem, but when it comes to the matter at hand, they will not put your interests above their own national interests. We see this today in the example of Ukraine, when Europe in particular has failed to demonstrate this support in action. Despite the fact that they hypocritically say to this day that they will do everything to help Ukraine”, he continued.

He further added that as soon as the United States stepped aside and started talking about peace, Europe had no plan that showed their similarity to the domestic radical opposition.

“This is the situation in Europe today: they do not want to pay their own money and contribute to the reconstruction of Ukraine. They are in an absolute deadlock and are looking for a way to use Russia's frozen sovereign assets. If they do this, they will completely destroy the financial trust in Europe”, he concluded.