The Minister of Foreign Affairs said Georgia’s non-invitation to the European Union General Affairs Council session in Warsaw was a “deliberate move” from the bloc to “influence” the country’s “political agenda”.

“The EU unity could not be achieved without Georgia’s involvement… This empty seat was for the sole purpose of [further influence] the political agenda in Georgia, for someone to talk about it, write about it, and make a story. In reality, there was no other purpose for this. If someone is worried that a dialogue with Georgia is needed, we have repeatedly said that our desire is precisely dialogue, to talk about the serious issues related to Georgia’s accession to the EU.

Georgia’s accession to the EU cannot happen just with empty statements from anyone - neither from our side, nor from their side, nor from any politician. This requires work, diplomacy, and conducting a dialogue with the bloc based on its own interests. If the EU does not sit down with the democratically elected Government to talk, what are we talking about? How can we talk about joining the EU? How can you imagine what attempts Georgia could have? Would we come and forcefully sit on the chair?”, - said Maka Botchorishvili.

She also took aim at Poland’s role in the matter, criticising remarks during the meeting by Radosław Sikorski [Polish Foreign Minister], who called the Georgian Government “undemocratic”: “Despite my great respect for the Poles and Poland as a state, his [Sikorski] statements are simply frivolous. We cannot conduct international relations with such statements and only with statements”.

Questioning the approach of unspecified European partners toward Georgia’s democratic process, she argued that “democracy cannot be disregarded based on political preferences”: “How can we talk about democracy, non-democracy, if we ignore democracy? If you do not recognise the main basis of democracy at all – the people. The people came to the elections, the people participated in the elections, made a choice, and you want to completely disregard the choice that the people made and then talk about democracy and democratic principles. This is frivolous”.