Mikheil Saakashvili

I welcome you all here!

It is great honor for me to greet the President of Armenia Serj Sarkisian on his first official visit here in Georgia.

Armenia and Georgia historically and in today's world are allies, are brother countries, are friends.

These are countries, which are united not only by past, but by very successful future.

We are observing the events taking place in Armenia with great interest.

We appreciated a lot the position of the Armenian leadership, the firm support of our territorial integrity.

Armenia, like many other countries around the world, supported Georgia's territorial integrity, unity and peaceful resolution of conflicts in Georgia.

In issues like these our unity is very important not only for our governments but for our nations as well. This will always remain in the memories of our people, because people will always remember who stood beside us when we most needed support in the very decisive moment.

At the same time I want to say that ethnic Armenians are a very important part of the Georgian society.

We never differentiate our citizens by ethnic origins, but we honor their culture and origins greatly, this is part of their identity and at the same time identity of Georgia as well.

We cooperate in this sphere as well very closely, to simplify the dialogue between our people, and relations between cultures.

One more issue, which is very important as well.

Armenian-Georgian border must be a border of friendship. We have decided to work on simplifying the border crossing procedures. I ask my Ministers of Finance and Economic Development to go to Armenia in the nearest future and work on this issue together with our Armenian colleagues.

I think that the border between Georgia and Armenia should belike Swiss and German border.

Our people must not have to deal with formal procedures while crossing the border, and if it is necessary this should be the most simple procedure - a person must not spend more than half an hour on the border.

Tbilisi and Yerevan are so close that we must be an extension and addition of one another.

Do you know how many Armenians come to Georgia every year to spend their holidays? We decided to build a new road by mutual efforts between Georgia and Armenia.

We are building the road in Javakheit, this road will connect Akhalkalaki, Tsalka, Ninotsminda to Tbilisi. The reconstruction of this road will be finished in the nearest two years and 170 million USD will be spent on this project.

This road is also a leading road to Georgian-Armenian and Georgia-Turkey borders and the whole region will be connected with very good roads.

Besides this, we have agreed that we will form a consortium that will build a road which will go through Goderdzi pass to Black Sea region.

It is very important for us not to have mountainous Ajara as a dead-end and it would be connected to South Georgia by a good road, and through South Georgia to Tbilisi. This will be an alternative road from mountainous Ajara to Tbilisi.

If now you need 7 hours to come from Khulo to Tbilisi, the chance could be found to minimize this time twice.

This also concerns Shuakhevi, Keda. Every region of mountainous Ajara must be connected to Georgian-Armenian border, and through South Georgia to the capital and other locations.

Mountainous Ajara will become the most fast-developing region of Georgia then.

We will work mutually to make our economic relations firmer and stronger.

I think that all of us learned lessons after the war initiated against Georgia, now we all see how important regional cooperation is, how much damage everyone gets after conflicts and how important it is to resolve issues on time and not pass them to our future generations.

We are finishing work on delimitation of border, and practically we do not have any unresolved issue.

So we work on such large projects, after fulfillment of these projects the economic geography of our countries will be changed totally, and of course will serve each of our citizen.

If after two days from our meeting, a citizen going to Yerevan or coming to Tbilisi will handle a passport on Sadakhlo border to the border guard, he will smile and return the passport in two minutes to the citizen, that means that we have reached certain results.

If in two months our consortium will obtain enough international money and the reconstruction of Goderdzi pass will start in reality, (we are working on this project already, and I am sure that this road will be opened in several years), our future generations will recall today's meeting with great joy.

Our relationship will become firmer in future and our countries will be stronger, and we all will remember that we had solved very difficult problems by each other's support and we have created better future.

I am positive that the future of Caucasus lies in the creation of the united market, human, cultural and economic spheres, in tight relations with other regions.

But before we reach this, of course we must overcome existing problems, but I believe that we will be able to do so.

Mr. President, it is great honor for me to host you here in the capital of Georgia.

I think that you feel at home here. And I hope that the members of your delegation feel the same.

I am sure that our relations after this meeting will turn into a new stage.

Serj Sargisian

Thank you very much Mr. President!

I am grateful that once again I have a chance to express my condolences towards Georgian people and towards President Saakashvili after recent events that took place in August, to express my sorrow on the death of the people during these events.

We have a great potential to develop communication on the high level and to establish better relationship between each other.

I am very glad that we have this possibility. This is all very important for stability.

I said it many times that stability in Georgia is very crucial for Armenia, it is so much important that we can even compare the stability of Georgia with the stability of Armenia.

Our brothers and sisters lived in Georgia for centuries and still live here.

Everything what the President spoke about is very important.

We have agreed on the construction of a new road. This is very important for us as well.

We must not create any problems to our citizens in crossing the border. The border must not become an obstacle for the people.

Now about the existing problem - it is impossible to resolve this issue by military intervention.

We all understand that Caucasus occupies only a very small part on the world map, but Caucasus is a very important place, where interests are crossed. We must use these interests for the prosperity of our people.

It is great honor for me to get such an award from the President of Georgia because it adds big emotional influence to my visit in Georgia.

We must evaluate our relationships and we must do everything to make this relationship firmer.

Once again thank you all!

I am full of positive feelings and I am sure that all this will bring positive results to all of us!

Communications Office
of the President of Georgia