For Georgia’s Kemoklidze: PM’s harmful messages on NATO gift for Putin

The statement of Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili that Georgia must first resolve its territorial issues and only after  join NATO, is harmful, damaging for state interests and is a gift for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a leader of For Georgia party Kakhaber Kemoklidze said on Tuesday. 

Garibashvili suggested at Qatari Economic Forum on June 21 that Georgia “was not naive” and understood that it required to reintegrate its occupied territories, otherwise the member states would not be unanimous on the country’s membership to the alliance. 

“This is an absolutely wrong political line. In fact, it is vice versa . First we should fully integrate ourselves into Euro-Atlantic space to develop the country and make it more attractive, and only after more forward to solve the territorial issue as the latter is far more complicated and will take a long time,” Kemoklidze stated. 

He suggested that pushing the narrative by the PM was in Russia’s interests.