The government of Georgia managed to ensure to be in full solidarity with Ukraine and at the same time protect the security of its people - no country crosses the line of escalation, the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, said on PalitraNews TV program Free Studio, when he spoke about the relations between Georgia and Ukraine.

As Papuashvili explains, none of the countries have crossed the line where they could think that "there would be a confrontation with Russia beyond that".

"No country crosses the line of escalation. None of the countries have crossed the line where they think that there will be a confrontation with Russia. Of course, it is difficult to say exactly where this line is, it is politics and it is difficult to determine it. This is the difficulty that our government is facing, to see this limit at the right time and to ensure that Georgia is not directly involved in a military conflict.

During this period, we heard criticism of the government. Finally, if we summarize this year and look at the situation in Georgia, we can say that the government of Georgia managed to ensure to be in full solidarity with Ukraine and at the same time protect the security of its people. As for that dimension, which is not determined by thinking about the people of Ukraine, nor about thinking about the Georgian people, but it is a part of PR, this PR part can be used especially by the radical opposition. The government has other responsibilities, apart from taking care of the PR tricks that the opposition is trying to use against the government," Papuashvili notes.

When asked why it is difficult for the government to formulate political statements clearly, in particular, openly saying that Georgia wants to see Ukraine win this war, as well as saying that Russia is a common enemy of Georgia and Ukraine, Papuashvili explains that if he says not only Georgia says it, but it is also a co-author and supporter of dozens of resolutions and hundreds of statements.

"You know that Georgia is the author of the appeal to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which talks about the investigation of war crimes committed by Russia. It is impossible to compare the official position of the state, which the highest officials express, and whether any words were said during the commentary. This is a frivolous approach. The position is not only clear and supportive, we are the authors of the UN resolution, the expulsion of Russia from the Council of Europe, the request to investigate Russia's crimes in the International Criminal Court. All countries have a threshold beyond which they see the risk of directly entering into a military conflict if they approach that threshold. They don't supply the kind of weapons that might aggravate relations with Russia.

All countries are trying, on the one hand, to be supportive, on the other hand, not to aggravate the issue so much, to enter into such a spiral, where there will be a direct military confrontation with Russia. We, Georgia, unlike all other countries that are on Ukraine's side, do not have the security umbrella of NATO, we do not have the umbrella of economic solidarity of the European Union, a contingent of Russian armed forces is present on our territory. This is precisely why our risk margin is lower than that of any NATO member country. Under these conditions, Georgia shows exactly the same solidarity towards Ukraine as regards the legal and political support that these countries show," Papuashvili notes.

As Papuashvili explains, Georgia stands by the sovereignty of Ukraine and the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

"Of course, this support is visible on all platforms. Georgia has exactly the same attitude as any EU or NATO member country that is part of the Alliance that supports Ukraine. We have exactly the same criteria as these countries when making decisions. If we look at the issue of sanctions, including the issue of military aid, the attitude towards this issue has progressed on the part of NATO member states. At first, it was evasive support, with some countries refusing to provide weapons of various types of offensive military assistance, then it changed. We remember that from the very first day, Ukraine asked the NATO member states to close the sky of Ukraine, which they refused, and today we see that a decision was made to supply the "Patriot" system. When it comes to helping Ukraine, there are two dimensions. One is solidarity, the other is protecting the security of one's country and people. These are two issues on the basis of which the state makes a decision. Not only Georgia, NATO member countries also refrain from giving some type of weapons to Ukraine, for example, military planes. It took months to decide whether to supply the anti-aircraft system. There was a risk that they would directly enter into a military conflict with Russia," Papuashvili notes.

source: IPN