Georgian Parliament Speaker: some EU bureaucrats think Georgia can be bypassed in linking Europe and Asia

Georgian Parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday criticised what he described as misconceptions among some European Union officials regarding Georgia’s geopolitical and logistical role in linking Europe and Asia.

In his remarks, Papuashvili argued that certain EU bureaucrats believe Georgia can be bypassed while still maintaining effective connectivity between Europe and Asia.

“Some European bureaucrats think that Georgia can simply be skipped over while connecting Europe and Asia”, Papuashvili said.

He added that geography cannot be ignored or overridden, emphasising that historical trade routes such as the Silk Road passed through Georgia precisely because it offers one of the shortest and safest links between the two regions.

“The Silk Road did not pass through here by accident. It passed through because then, just as now, this was the shortest and safest connecting route between Europe and Asia. It is certain European bureaucrats who seem to lack a grasp of geography. We recently saw in a news report that even a European foreign minister could not locate Iran on a map. They often struggle to find where Georgia is located, and some European bureaucrats believe you can simply leapfrog over Georgia to connect Europe with Asia.

But no one has ever won a battle against geography. Therefore, those bureaucrats who think they can achieve anything by bypassing or ignoring Georgia will, of course, be defeated by geography once again”, the speaker said.

He further argued that attempts to pressure Georgia into aligning with Western sanctions against Russia would have had negative consequences for European energy security. “If we had followed Brussels into an economic war with Russia, what gas would Europe have received?” he said, suggesting that Georgia’s refusal to adopt certain EU-driven policies helped maintain regional stability and energy transit routes.

Papuashvili also claimed that some EU bureaucrats are not acting in the interests of European citizens and are instead pursuing policies disconnected from practical realities.