Mikheil Saakashvili

Well, I'm really privileged and gratified by the support and solidarity that UK government and Mr. Miliband himself showed toward our people. You made some very, very strong statements, strong tone for number of other European reactions. What we've seen today if emerging from NATO meeting as a clear and strong UN and US support. I think NATO today sent very strong signal about Russian aggression toward Georgia, Russian invasion into Georgia and continued Russian occupation and continued destruction of my population, their property and Georgia's infrastructure.

We are pleased that new framework has been created between Georgia and Russia, sorry, between Georgia and NATO, I wished that had been with Russia but that's not the case. I'm pleased that there is set a commission and within commission we will work on some kind of accelerated rapprochement between Georgia and NATO and I hope for, we can brace for, as well, for fast track process for our membership application. We are encouraged but strong statements from Brussels. I just spoke to president Sarkozy, he had long conversation with president Medvedev and as he told me he again urged Russian withdrawal from Georgia. I cannot underline strong enough how important it is that Russia fulfills its obligation. For me it's totally clear that right now Russians are not and never have been in first place after just small pieces of Georgian territory. Russia has been after demise of the Georgian government, undermining and destruction of the Georgian state; their activities clearly show that they're after infrastructure; they want to strangle government in Tbilisi, they want to demoralize my people and put it into panic, and they want to basically not only get rip of the Georgian government but get rid of the idea, of overall idea of Georgia's independence and freedom.

But one thing is clear to us, that they're not going to prevail. They aren't going to bring us to our knees. Georgian people are holding very well. There is tremendous show of solidarity between ordinary people towards internally displaced persons; I've seen absolutely heroic examples on the part of ordinary people as well as journalists, doctors, civilian volunteers, and I can tell you that Russian occupation of my country is untenable, cannot be sustained, and I have to say that it's going to create problems for the occupiers. Georgian people have shown their best not to go for provocations, but it should be made very clear - Russian troops have been going around, distributing leaflets in some places in Georgia that people should get rid of the government, they should demonstrate, they should create some kind of civilian unrest and Georgia responded with organized civil protests, which was peaceful, but which was also very brave. And I think the world has witnessed that. This is country under occupation, but like Czechs in 1968 and like Hungarians in 1956, as a European nation, Georgians are continuing to resist in their peaceful ways and this peaceful resistance will continue and intensify. The only thing I can promise to the Russians is that we will not fall, the Georgia will not fall and the civilian, peaceful resistance will be stepped up and expand and we will, eventually, create conditions that they will have no other option but to leave. But meanwhile, of course, we have to work together with international community that it is our common goal to do it in very peaceful, efficient and non-violent manner.

Thank you again for being here, thank you for your pledges to rebuilt my country, to give urgent assistance to my country, and of course, we will do our best that this is the money well spent. By the way I just have conversation with John Biden that was sent here by the senator Obama and he came up with one billion plan of Georgia's economic reconstruction, as an initial package from US Congress. We expect some additions form different sides and hopefully Georgia can get several billion dollars to reconstruct, to strengthen its infrastructure, to compensate for damages and losses, and to reestablish itself as a prosperous, fast developing European economy. Thank you so much. Please.

David Miliband

Thank you very much Mr. President. It's a great please and a privilege to be here in Tbilisi tonight, especially coming straight from the emergency NATO foreign ministers' meeting earlier today. We've had really excellent hour and half with you and your team covering the full range of political, security, economic and regional issues. I'm here for three reasons above all and I want to make them public and make sure that they are widely heard.

First, it's very, very important, that the Georgian people know the British government and the British people stand in solidarity with them, against threats to they life, to their livelihood and to their country. And the British policy is founded on very clear foundations that the rule of force doesn't replace the rule of law in international relations, that democratic governments need to be sustained and strengthened, that the territorial integrity of sovereign nations needs to be defended and at all times international law needs to be upheld. Now, on several counts Russian behavior during last ten days has violated those principles and it is very important that at the UN, in the EU and in NATO Britain continues to speak loudly and clearly on these issues and I'm grateful for the kind words you've said about statements of our prime-minister and also myself over the last 10 days during this crisis.

Secondly, I've been reporting to the President on the NATO meeting today, which, I think, was a significant meeting. It was a meeting marked, above all, by unity in face of continued Russian refusal to live up to their own commitments to withdraw their forces to 7th of August lines. That is very important. But the unity, I think, when deeper, simply urging, demanding that Russia live up to their own commitments. The unity was around the idea that political and practical support needs to be offered to Georgia - political support through the declaration you've now seen, but also the intensification of the relationship between NATO and Georgia. Historic decision was taken in May to commit NATO to Georgian membership. And what we've seen today in the commitment to a NATO-Georgia commission is the basis for taking full-backed commitment with the substantive route-map of cooperation and mutual commitment. That would be taken forward, I think now, on a strong basis which understands the need for the development of the capacity on the Georgian side, but also for cooperation with NATO partners. And I think it was striking today to hear all NATO members talking about the need to ensure the aggression doesn't play and that is very significant.

Thirdly, there is real concern in the United Kingdom about the situation, the humanitarian crisis that you face. I think the way in which the Georgian people have responded is obviously... it's the second example, but there are international responsibilities as well for up to hundred thousand people according to the World Food Program who now need humanitarian assistance. But something I will be seeing for myself tomorrow, your center for displaced people but also discussing with your government. At every stage I want to ensure, and it is my job to ensure on behalf of UK prime minister here today, that the Georgian people know that in practical and political terms they are gonna get strong support from the UK, not just bilaterally, but also through the key multilateral fora of which we are a leading player. And there is something that we can take forward during this visit but then also continue. Thank you very much indeed.

Questions:

TV, Rustavi2:

Thank you for a possibility but let me ask you in Georgian. If Russia will not fulfill it's commitment and will not withdraw forces from Georgia will the West and EU put some type of sanctions on Russia and what sanctions will those be?

David Miliband

Well, I think one of the most important principles of diplomacy is you don't show your hand in advance. The important point is that Russia has made commitments from the President of Russia, the President of Russia, who is formally responsible for foreign policy and the President of Russia has committed to the President of France to a cease-fire agreement and to implement all of its aspects, including the withdrawal of Russian troops. And every day that goes by beyond the deadline of noon yesterday is a day when world can see that Russia is not living up to its word. And there is something very serious not just for Georgia; it is very serious for Russian reputation around the world. And what we are dedicated to is ensuring the Russia does live up with its commitments. I believe on the basis of the conversation between President Sarkozy and President Medvedev that the Russian President made his third commitment to the withdrawal of troops. And with every commitment and every failure to live up with commitment international pressure will grow - in the EU from last week, NATO today and the United Nations subsequent in the future; and I think that you will find growing pressure from around the world that is saying to Russia that it can't understand how country can commit to one thing and then not do it, not least of the commitment from a level of President. And so I assure you that our efforts are dedicated to assure that Russian commitments are fulfilled, that commitments first of all in respect to these troops, but secondly I would remind you in respect to UN resolutions most recently as April when Russia voted for a resolution committed to the territorial integrity of Georgia.

Mikheil Saakashvili

Mr. Secretary, I just have to underline that meanwhile Russia doesn't meet its commitments it's not losing time as well. You know, we've been hearing lately the reports of some explosions in Gori; what I have been hearing this is all about civilian infrastructure like civil register and other places being blown up. There is not a big secret that most of their soldiers are terribly drunk and they are going around and looting, and severely terrorizing the people around; and there is ethnic cleansing being committed and we are demanding access; this has been committed in areas previously controlled by the central Georgian government, because half of South Ossetia had always been controlled by the Georgian central government and to see what was this invasion all about, what are the results they are trying to legalize now. And again, we are worried about the reports of civilian hostages they have. We want immediate access for ICRC, for NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council) people; I've been getting this from western media, this is not my speculation; I've been getting very disturbing reports from Human Rights Watch and other groups of the brave people on the ground who are trying to obtain real facts and I think all of this should not go away unnoticed, because it's not only about withdrawing, withdrawing is absolute must, but it's about trying to find remedies and reprimanding people who are committing all this, because initial falls the pre-accuses that Georgia committed the "world genocide" and killed two thousand people; everybody has proven now that it was totally wrong and fake, every independent international human rights group said this was totally fake.

Basically, they've committed exactly something they were accusing Georgians of committing there. That is the cynicism of this thing. It is so shameless that this people say this is peace and then they are doing war; they are sub genocide and then they commit ethnic cleansing; they say Tskhinvali destroyed and they are destroying it by their carpet bombardment - that's why we wanted European and UN access to verify what was done there. You know, you are really dealing with absolutely perverse international behavior and I think this is beyond Georgia.

Sorry for this little philosophic overturn but it also means something for people who are on the ground trapped and who are in this horrible conditions and we absolutely urgently need to get relief there and to get also international focus on that issues. Sorry.

Journalist:

You talk about the pressure building on Russia, but still have not seen any concrete steps despite the violations that have been committed. When this concrete steps will happen?

David Miliband

The truth is as President said this last week, 18 000 of Georgian troops, many 100s of thousands potentially of Russian troops, that's a mismatch, but the political consequences of this are over the more medium term and Russia is finding itself isolated even from some of its traditional allies. I think what is significant is that world is asking Russia to live up commitments it has made itself with the UN and commitments it has made to President Sarkozy, and I think that that is why there is incomprehension and a failure of Russia to live up to those commitments; I think that the support that comes for Georgia today has given light to the idea that somehow NATO made a mistake in April at the Bucharest Summit, somehow it was a drafting era that led to the commitment to membership of NATO by Georgia. The commitment today to the NATO-Georgia Commission with substantive cooperation - some of laid out, others of it will be taken forward at future visits at Tbilisi and future cooperation. I think an important point is that the bottom lines are maintained and the bottom lines are about defense of a sovereign, independent country, defense of its territorial integrity and defense of its democratically elected government. And there is not a quick win of this kind you are thinking, what there is, are medium to long term consequences.

Mikheil Saakashvili

Actually Russia is not totally isolated, because Hesbollah supported them and also Belarus, and this is a new acquisition, Mr. Lukashenko is up there and supporting them.

Journalist

Mr. Miliband, the NATO and European Union have supported Georgia very well, but at the same time, however, you strongly depend on Russia, especially energy, dependence is very strong; So, do you think now it is time for the EU and other countries to seek some solutions, some possibilities to minimize this dependency, especially now; and Mr. Saakashvili, one more question for you: you called on Russia for talks the day before yesterday, but it bounced back to you and there is no response from Russia so far; does it still remain and what else you want to say to Russia after today's event that they are still not pulling out.

David miliband

well, I think that energy is a very important test case for the relationship of the world with Russia, we all know the history of politics and energy security; and I think there are very good reasons first for the common European energy policy that something has been British policy for few years now, because when 27 countries negotiate with Russia, there is a danger that they get sliced up, but when they act as 27, suddenly the relationship between the supplier and consumer is far more balanced relationship. And so the first point is that energy policy needs to be conducted on the basis that does establish balance. Secondly, there are very god reasons of diversification of energy supply; in any case, that's something that we have been able to build in the United Kingdom, but we need to do better, for example in respect to renewable energy; other European countries are thinking about it; thirdly, there is a critical European Union energy and climate change package that has come together over the last few months and would be finalized under the French presidency; at its hart are important issues on competition policy and third party claws that's relevant to the relationship between the EU countries and its energy suppliers. So, energy is at hart of this, but the relationship between a supplier and a consumer needs to be a balanced relationship; and the consumer has power, because pipelines from Russia go in one direction, and I think there is a big debate behind the EU about the sources of its energy supply, and how it ensures that energy does not become a political tool in the future.

Mikheil Saakashvili

we have always tries to reach out to Russians, I tried this for all these months, we advanced very elaborate and articulate peace plans for these separatist conflicts; these are not genuine separatists, these are not like - I do not know who the genuine separatists are, e.g. PKK of Turkey or Basks - these are just foreign sponsored, totally, financed, armed and governed by Russians; it is not like we have got internal problem, home-grown one; we are small and they are big, not like we are big and have small separatists, like 25 thousand ethnic Ossetians. Do you remember the places, where Georgia controlled South Ossetia, run by the former SOuth Ossetian Separatist, who switched the sides, and who were in Tskhinvali? Russian officers. Russian army that entered Tskhinvali, was directed by the General who served last year as a minister of defense of South Ossetian separatist government; what else you need to prove that this is not a home-grown issue; now we have always tried to reach out to the Russians, but problem here is that ... today Bernard Kushner said it rightly: Georgians reacted to the set of Russian provocations. They had no interest in talking; we know it exactly, because one our after Bucharest communiqu Putin came out and said: now we will give substantial help to South Ossetia and Abkhazia; he clearly saw it in Geopolitical terms. And in those circumstances what else could Georgia do? They were interested in defeating NATO without firing a single shot at it. And that's exactly what - from their point of view - they have done. And I think this is high time to respond, their tanks have been on the roll, on the move, they've been invading Georgia from all sides; frankly I thought they would strike us from Abkhazia, but they stroke us from South Ossetia, because it's shorter way to Tbilisi; I underestimated that they would go to the capital, and as Bernard Kushner clearly said today and I agree with him, that they wanted to take over the capital; if Georgian army had not resisted for 48 hours, and we know that there is a mismatch, but if we had not resisted for 48 hours, if they had not been awakening Europeans and international reaction, we would not been enjoying this landscape right now; Russian tanks would have been enjoying this right now; So what I am saying is that, I think still international reaction had its effect; 3 days ago I myself was convinced that they were very close and we had intercepts, we had all the intelligence that they might be feeling this way, but now they have been deterred from doing so and they need to be pushed back; and that's why Mr. Secretary's visit here ... and the position his government took... and whole political spectrum in the UK... I saw the statement by David Cameroon; and I think now we have to get concrete results on the ground, we need to get rid of these tanks terrorizing our population.

Journalist

I have a question to Mr. Saakashvili. Have you got support from the big influential Asian countries like India and China?

Mikheil Saakashvili

We have been working with all those countries; we have been sending diplomatic missions; we did not get any negative reactions from them; it is a huge problem for them as well; but what we have done is that we have lots of confidence in Georgia not only from the big players, like Mr. Secretary, or his country, or EU or NATO, or the United States, but we have lots of investors calling us and they are confirming their investments in Georgia; they know that this always has been a good place to do business in; they know that the missiles hit on pipeline were also targeted for investments and I hope that with this Western support we will get... and world support, you are right we have world support and not just Western support... we'll get back the status of being the prospering economy; that's what people need besides the all the side effects of the aggression.

Miliband: can I just speak up on one point? I think people were expecting that there would not be the sort of agreement on the founding principles on the European Union meeting; I think that people expected flaking away from the issues of territorial integrity and defense of the democratic government; that has not happened; that's actually has been strength and has not been old Europe - new Europe divide; that's actually has been the united European position in the EU and in NATO. I think that's an important message for the people of Georgia as well as to the Russian government.

Journalist:

Mr Secretary, you have mentioned during you'r speech today several times, that the Western society, Western structures, European structures admit this fact as occupation, and their statements are very clear on it. You have mentioned that President Medvedev took coomitment on withdrawal of forces from Georgian territory, he had confirmed his words with signature, but this commitment is not fulfilling yet. Are there some specific dates for West, and if Russia will not fullfil it's commitment, will the West activate above mentined sanctions?

David Miliband

The date was yesterday; it was 12 noon yesterday as the relevant date and that's why you have seen such strength of feeling today; such a sense of incomprehension including among traditional Russian allies.

Mikheil Saakashvili

I have to mention by the way that when President Sarkozy came here, he told me that he had clear understanding - and certainly I trust his word because he was always very precise on what he heard from Russians - that from the moment Russian military operation would be ceased and there was also Medvedev's statement on Russian television. That was the day after which the worst bombardments happened; and that's problem. They have been moving these goals all the time; and they have been trying to inflict more damage meanwhile waiting perhaps for their bigger strategic goals...

David Miliband

I referred earlier to the third set of commitments from President Medvedev; they were commitments before the European Council, there were commitments for 12 noon yesterday; and there were further commitments today in the telephone conversation with President Sarkozy. I do not think it is right now to start hypothetical debate on what will happen if the Russians do not live up to their own obligations; I think the priority is to jolt they do live up own obligation and I think they know that their country relies on the word of its president, and it is going to be very important for Russia and I feel that international consensus about the need for ceasefire to be implemented and agreement be fulfilled, critical international presence to be established both in terms of monitoring the ceasefire and in terms of the continued long-term surge fray political settlement in these disputed areas. That is at the hurt of this and I think that the Russian President's commitments... and he would be expected to live up to and I think he can see very clearly the consequences of not living up to.

Mikheil Saakashvili

I think that I fully share what you have said and one thing is clear now. Russian withdrawal should happen, but also it is very important that the results of ethnic cleansing, and these guys came in and destroyed everything we built: schools, hospitals, administrative buildings, housing for the people, Olympic size swimming pool, even we had there amusement park, they absolutely atrociously went after all of these, because this was our power to solve these issues, when Russians were bringing in more and more weapons, more and more equipment, more and more ammunition. But they have also thrown out ethnically mixed population of South Ossetia; I have to underline these were not Georgian villages, these were ethnically mixed villages; there were ethnic Ossetians, Russians, Ukrainians, everybody there. They just happened to be under the elected government headed by former separatist, who was in autonomy talks with Georgian central government. And they destroyed the idea of autonomy by this brutal intervention. Now, how do we change that? I think it is very important to institutionalize mechanisms, when results of ethnic cleansing would never be recognized. Because you know what? When Stalin took over Karelia, they might say Karelians do not want to be part of Finland, because there were no Finns left in Karelia. Anybody who would like to be part of Finland was gone out. People who were in Kaliningrad they were expelled; so now people of Kaliningrad do not want to be part of Germany; they are trying to do this 19th and 20th century brutal things in 21st century in Georgia. And I heard some comments saying that may we get away with this, may Georgia never get back these territories because whoever is left do not want to be part of Georgia, but nobody is left. I mean from Abkhazia 85% of the population has been expelled, almost 500 thousand people all together in two waves of ethnic cleansing; and we have the third one already. In South Ossetia we had a very brutal ethnic cleansing and it is very important and I appeal to everybody; it is not only about getting Russian off the road, but do not let them to get away with ethnic cleansing because they have Security Council sit and because their leaders feel so immune from international jurisdiction, from international justice that they can do just anything. This should not be done in Georgia, because otherwise every principle of humanity will be endangered and I think we have full agreement on that one.

David Miliband

We have said very, very clearly that without fear of favor there needs to be independent investigation, and every aspect of allegations that have been made ... I think that the reports from the Human Rights Watch and other organizations are a start, but these are the allegations of utmost seriousness and they need to be investigated soon, so that memories are fresh and so that evidences are clear and then appropriate consequences need to be followed through; there is an absolutely vital need that the human rights of the citizens of this country are properly respected. And they need to be respected in a way that sets the norm and sets the standard in a right place, I think that media have an important role to play in this and the openness of the society to the media scrutinies I think is important... there have been very impressive reportings of a ... there is also though independent, trusted third party organizations: Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group that are doing a report at the moment. These are respected, significant international bodies. They are the people who can speak authentically about the situation and without fear or favor we will respond to these reports.

Press Office
of the President of Georgia