Georgian parliament speaker: country withstood unprecedented foreign pressure

Georgia’s parliamentary speaker, Shalva Papuashvili, has said the country withstood unprecedented external pressure during 2025, describing events around Georgia as a projection of wider regional and global confrontation rather than the result of internal political processes.

Speaking at the Ambassadors’ Conference, Papuashvili said the pressure was aimed at interfering in Georgia’s domestic affairs, reshaping its political processes and manipulating public opinion. He linked this to the fourth year of the war in Ukraine and what he described as open competition between global powers.

Papuashvili said the international system was undergoing fundamental change, arguing that the post-Cold War order had ended, the unipolar world no longer existed and global security architecture had collapsed. He said states were now seeking a new balance of power in an emerging multipolar world, driven primarily by national interests.

According to the parliamentary speaker, the United States was effectively abandoning its role as a “global policeman”, while Europe and the European Union faced strategic uncertainty as they searched for new political, military and economic security models.

Against this backdrop, Papuashvili said Georgia had faced pressure to play an active role in what he described as a doomed geopolitical scenario but had resisted, with public support. He defended the government’s policy of peace, saying it was a deliberate and responsible state choice rather than a sign of weakness, and said it would remain the guiding principle of Georgia’s domestic and foreign policy in 2026.

He said Georgia wanted the war in Ukraine to end and peace to be established but argued that the timing, format and geopolitical outcome of any settlement remained unpredictable.

Papuashvili stressed that “Georgia first” should remain the country’s core strategic principle, adding that the authorities were open to constructive dialogue with partners who respected Georgia’s sovereignty and national interests. He said pressure, blackmail and political moralising could not replace dialogue.

Concluding his address, the parliamentary speaker highlighted the responsibility of Georgia’s ambassadors, thanking them for what he described as their professionalism, patriotism and service in defending the country’s national interests.