Saakashvili: Georgia Mulling Various Security Options

Georgia will continue moving towards NATO, other options for the country’s security are also under discussion in parallel to this process, President Saakashvili said on December 17 while responding a question on possible bilateral cooperation treaty with the United States.

“We will continue moving on the road towards the Euro-Atlantic integration and no one should have any illusion about it,” Saakashvili told a group of Georgian journalists at a televised press conference. “What has happened at the recent NATO summit was very important, because this issue of MAP [Membership Action Plan] has been put aside and it was said that Georgia made a progress and Georgia – with MAP or without it – will join NATO; so we made a step forward towards [NATO].”

“But of course bilateral relations with the United States are very important; of course we are considering various options. I want to tell you that we have very close relations with the current U.S. administration and we already have very close ties with the incoming administration.”

“From January we will have stronger America, because it will have stronger President, with a stronger mandate and with stronger positions in the world.

While speaking about security guarantees for Georgia, Saakashvili also said: “Many interesting surprises are anticipating us and very interesting developments are ahead; we exactly know what we are doing; we are working very interestingly and it will become clear for everyone in next weeks and months.”

‘No Threat of Large-Scale War’

Saakashvili also said at the same press conference that there was “no threat of some kind of large-scale war, because Russia has serious internal problems now.”

At the same time he also said that it was not ruled out that Russia might try “to engage Georgia in provocations.”

Addressing Russia’s recapturing of the village of Perevi and some opposition politicians’ allegations that the Georgian leader’s “irresponsible statements” triggered Russia to retake the village, Saakashvili said: “There are some voices saying that Russians retook Perevi because they did not like something in our internal politics. If some of us ever say that our actions should depend on what the occupiers like or not, it means that it is all over for us.”

He linked the Russia’s initial withdrawal from Perevi with EU summit and added that the Russian troops reoccupied the village “as soon as the summit was over.”

The issue of resolving Georgia’s territorial problems, he said, depended on “our internal consolidation and on our further integration into powerful international structures.”

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