Lasha Shavdiya | Socialist Platform of Georgia
Statement by the representative of Georgia. June 23.
After the collapse of the USSR, pro-Western forces came to power in Georgia and immediately declared their main foreign policy goal: joining NATO.
Georgia turned into a zone of confrontation between NATO and Russia. Two separatist regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, quickly joined Russia. Inter-ethnic armed conflicts began: Abkhaz-Georgian and Ossetian-Georgian. Tens of thousands of people were killed, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled their homes, and towns and villages were destroyed.
Thus, NATO’s desire to extend its influence to Georgia led to the country’s breakup into three parts, with the tragedy described above.
Prior to this, all of the above-mentioned peoples had lived peacefully in a single space together with Russia for more than two centuries.
Georgia has close economic and cultural ties with neighboring Russia. First as part of the Russian Empire and then the USSR, a single economic and cultural space was created. Historically, Georgia has been unable to build a stable economy and security without normal relations with the Russian Federation. On the other hand, Russia is interested in a stable South Caucasus and a Georgia that does not cooperate with third parties to the detriment of overall Russian-Georgian security.
As soon as NATO’s interests intrude on these relations, namely as soon as Washington and Brussels impose their interests on official Tbilisi, problems begin in the region, namely with Russia. The fact is that in more than 30 years of relations between Georgia and NATO, the latter has always sought to make Georgia its ally in order to create problems for the Russian Federation.
This was the case in the early 1990s, when Georgia helped separatist forces in the Chechen Republic of Russia, taking advantage of its immediate proximity to Russia’s South Caucasus regions.
Georgia joined the Partnership for Peace program back in 1992. Officially, the program was aimed at expanding security and defense cooperation between Georgia and NATO. Since 2001, multinational military exercises have been regularly held in Georgia as part of the Partnership for Peace program.
In 2003, at the Istanbul Summit, NATO leaders, paying particular attention to the Caucasus, decided to establish the position of NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus.
In 2003, as a result of a coup in Georgia, even more radical pro-Western forces came to power. NATO’s influence on Georgia increased dramatically. In 2004, Georgia became the first country to agree on an Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with NATO. Since 2004, the Georgian armed forces have been cooperating with NATO in Afghanistan.
In 2006, the Georgian parliament voted unanimously in favor of Georgia’s integration into NATO.
US President George W. Bush declared Georgia a “beacon of democracy.”
Despite Russia’s repeated statements about a critical threat to its security if the post-Soviet countries, namely Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, became members of NATO, the Bucharest Summit of the Atlantic Alliance in April 2008 declared that Georgia would definitely become a NATO member.
It was announced that Georgia would definitely become a member of NATO.
It was the Bucharest NATO summit that caused a sharp deterioration in relations between Georgia and Russia, i.e., the cause of the 2008 military conflict.
Judge for yourself. Following the April 2008 NATO summit, Russian Chief of General Staff General Yuri Baluyevsky stated that if Georgia joined NATO, Russia would be forced to take “military and other measures” to protect its interests near its state borders.
The head of the Russian government announced his intention to “substantially support” Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whose leaders had sent him messages expressing concern about the decision taken at the NATO summit. As noted in a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry, “Russia has made its position on the Georgian leadership’s course toward accelerated Atlantic integration known to both the Georgian side and the members of the alliance. Any attempts to exert political, economic, and especially military pressure on Abkhazia and South Ossetia are futile and counterproductive.”
Ignoring all of the above, the Saakashvili regime decides to resolve the issue of territorial integrity by force and launches military operations against the separatist South Ossetia. A direct military confrontation with the Russian Federation is provoked. The five-day war ends with the de jure collapse of Georgia. Georgia receives a new wave of forced migrants, and there are casualties among both military personnel and civilians of both Ossetian and Georgian nationality.
Behind the adventurism of the then president of Georgia was NATO. Later, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer accused Russia of “violating Georgia’s territorial integrity and using ‘excessive military force’” during the conflict in South Ossetia.
Despite the disaster, Georgia continues to cooperate closely with NATO.
Since 2011, annual military exercises involving Georgia and NATO countries, known as Agile Spirit, have been held on Georgian territory.
In 2014, Georgia agreed to host the NATO-Georgia Joint Training Center (JTEC) in the suburbs of the capital, Tbilisi.
Since early 2016, NATO has been taking steps to strengthen its military presence in the Black Sea region, citing Russia’s deployment of additional troops and weapons in Crimea as justification.
On July 12, 2018, a meeting in the format of Ukraine-Georgia-NATO (NATO Engages) was held in Brussels as part of the NATO summit.
In November 2018, an agreement was reached on the construction by Georgia and the US of a large NATO military logistics center at an airfield near the capital Tbilisi. After modernization, the runway will be able to accommodate the largest American aircraft.
On April 4, 2019, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO countries had agreed at a ministerial meeting to adopt a package of measures to support Ukraine and Georgia. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on this occasion: “Any NATO build-up in the Black Sea region is pointless from a military point of view. It will not strengthen the security of either the region or NATO, but will only entail additional military risks… If additional military-technical measures are required on our part, we will take them.”
In December 2020, strengthening security in the Black Sea region was one of the central topics of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, to which the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Georgia were invited via videoconference. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made it clear that NATO’s presence in the region would be strengthened. He also said that the alliance needs to continue strengthening its partnership with Kyiv and Tbilisi.
After the start of Russia’s special military operation, NATO has sharply increased pressure on Georgia to join the anti-Russian military-economic coalition. This would lead to economic disaster for the small country, as it is dependent on economic cooperation with Russia in many ways. Given the experience of the 2008 five-day war with Russia and the developments on the battlefield between Russia and Ukraine, the official Tbilisi has made its decision. Not to succumb to pressure from Washington and Brussels, which Kiev has joined. The latter openly called on Tbilisi to go to war against the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where Russian military bases are located.
In the end, Tbilisi understood the deadly threat of further compliance with NATO’s orders and took a time-out. Despite this, official Tbilisi still aims to join NATO and has not removed the relevant article from the country’s constitution.
The majority of the Georgian population understands the danger of such an uncertain course, when, on the one hand, the ultimatums of Washington and Brussels are not being fulfilled, and on the other hand, rapprochement with NATO is still being declared as the main foreign policy goal.
In a situation where there are no diplomatic relations with Russia, this state of affairs could once again lead to military conflict with Georgia’s northern neighbor.
Progressive forces in Georgian society are doing everything possible to prevent a catastrophe.