President Milanović: I have come to express solidarity with Georgia in achieving territorial integrity
“A state, a community and a nation that had a poet in the 12th century such as Shota Rustaveli – while many progressive and richest European nations did not have such level of elaborate art – such a state, and I mean Georgia, deserves at least a little bit of attention and understanding”, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović stated today in Tbilisi following his meeting with the President of Georgia Mikheil Kavelashvili.
“I have come to express solidarity with Georgia in its efforts to be territorially integral and in this I extend my full support. Georgia has been in an unenviable position for years and instead of taking this into account when estimating Georgia’s rapprochement to the European Union, the opposite is being done and impossible dilemmas are put before the country in a very cynical way. Leading the way is a group of people which President Kavelashvili has called the European bureaucracy. I do not know exactly who makes up Brussels’ bureaucracy, but they do not speak in my name, nor do I allow them to speak in my name or in the name of Croatia”, President Milanović stated.
Noting that in 2025 no European Union leader came to visit Georgia, President Milanović said that he decided to accept the invitation to pay an official visit to Georgia “in order to see what kind of country is it that is being accused of following a pro-Moscow political course”. “That a government, a state that does not even have diplomatic relations with Moscow is a Moscow agent – is counterintuitive and incomprehensible”, President Milanović explained, adding that he even saw ministers of other European Union members coming to Tbilisi to join political protests against the government.
“I wondered how it would be for them to come to the main square in Zagreb, to Croatia. I am not taking a political stand here either of this government or of the Georgian Opposition, I do not know these people. But the idea itself that they will put pressure in such a violent way on a small and indeed isolated country in problems, is unacceptable to me”, President Milanović added.
In terms of economic relations, President Milanović said that “according to economic indicators, Georgia is developing successfully and has demonstrated high growth rates”. This is why there are businesspeople in a broader composition of the Croatian delegation. “Representatives of major Croatian companies with a lot of experience in Western Europe in technologically demanding affairs are interested in this market, in Georgia and this part of the Caucasian zone”, the President stated. The meeting with businesspeople will take place tomorrow and will include representatives of Končar, Podravka, Kraš, Franck and Sano.
To his Georgian hosts he said: “I wish that you peacefully complete your territorial integrity. We are on a sentimental level with you because we ourselves had to cope with adversity that was huge, but our opponent was a little less powerful than yours”.
At the invitation of the President of Georgia Mikheil Kavelashvili, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović and his spouse Sanja Musić Milanović are on a two-day official visit to Georgia. After the official welcoming ceremony, President Milanović and President Kavelashvili held a meeting which was followed by a bilateral meeting between the delegations of the Republic of Croatia and Georgia.
After the meeting with his host, President Milanović met with the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze, and in the continuation of the day he will meet with the Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia Shalva Papuashvili and will lay a wreath at the Monument to the Decorated Heroes of the Homeland in Heroes Square in Tbilisi.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Marko Beljan