Saakashvili on Talks with Merkel

President Saakashvili said he had “a much better meeting” with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on June 25 than he had expected.

“I was deeply impressed about how thoroughly she knows our problems and how deeply she is involved in these processes,” Saakashvili said in a televised press conference late on June 27.

“Germany is a leading European state today,” he continued. “You know that we had disagreement with Germany over [Georgia’s] NATO [aspiration], but as far as the major issue is concerned – Georgia’s territorial integrity – Germany has an extremely firm position and expresses full support for us.”

In response to a question on Georgia’s NATO aspiration, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after the meeting with President Saakashvili that progress was needed in resolving the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Merkel also said that Germany shared Georgia’s concerns over Russia’s recent moves in Abkhazia, but also called on Georgia to show restraint. She, however, made it clear that Russian peacekeeping troops in Abkhazia should remain in the region until an alternative was found.

Saakashvili said at the news conference on June 27 that there had been two major criteria for Georgia’s NATO integration: elections and conflicts.

“Everyone has recognized, except some Russian political figures, that Georgia has in the main held good elections,” Saakashvili said. “The second issue is about conflicts. No one is telling us: resolve those conflicts on your own and then come to us; everyone is engaged in this issue. All the leading European states have understood that it is also their problem.”

He also said that Georgia had succeeded in mobilizing the support of “entire Europe” in the face of ongoing “dirty provocations.”

“U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will pay a visit to Georgia in several days over this issue,” he said.

He also said that “unfreezing relations” with Russia was of vital importance.

“The tone observed in my contacts with Russia’s new president [Dmitry Medvedev] is a source of optimism; we, however, expect a change in the situation in connection with the conflicts and our territorial integrity,” Saakashvili said.