The President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili addressed the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia at the event dedicated to the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Georgia and the Holy See in the Vatican and said that when hid "Ave Maria" was sung in the Sistine Chapel, it was confirmed that Georgia was Europe.

In addition, in her speech, the President spoke about the importance of national consent, noting that “we will enter Europe if we are united and stop fighting against each other."

"I want to address the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia from here [Vatican]! Your Holiness, you gave great happiness to the whole of Georgia yesterday. When your Ave Maria was sung in the Sistine Chapel, we together with you and you together with us proved that we are in Europe, in the heart of Europe, and it was the greatest pride and the greatest joy for everyone. Joy at a time when there is not much to be happy about in this country.

I would like to address our Ukrainian friends from here and once again express our full solidarity with another cruel fact that happened today. I want to say that our joy and happiness of yesterday is based on the deep hope that freedom and independence will always prevail!

This is a sign when Georgia enters the Sistine Chapel, this is the crowning of the diplomatic relations between our two states, the 30th anniversary of which we are celebrating today, and as our Patriarch says - this is also the crowning of the centuries-old brotherhood of our two churches.

I am very happy that we made our small contribution to this great thing”, said the President.

source: IPN