Batumi hosts OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Economic Conference
12.05.12 20:17
Some 200 delegates of 40 countries assembled at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Economic Conference in Georgia`s Black Sea town Batumi today. President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili addressed the guests at teh conference.
Saakashvili spoke about the geopolitical situation in the country, the Russia-Georgia relations and invited foreign legitimate observers for the forthcoming parliamentary elections in the country.
"We have elections now in October. It`s very important on teh one hand for the Georgian credentials but is has also huge security dimension to it and OSCE is an organization for security and democracy at the same time. And it has security dimensions to it because in parallel to our elections, our northern neighbor has called for big trainings of their troops exactly in parallel time of our elections, they moved it one month later or two months later, they would usually do it in summer... politically it makes nonsense.. I mean because if you do such things, you only help your adversary to win elections right? Unless there is some plan to illegally follow up or deliver on your threats. That`s why we need as many observers as we can get", he said.
Mikheil Saakashvili and OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Petros Efthymiou discussed the monitoring of pre election preparations in Georgia at the face-to-face meeting in Batumi.
Petros Efthymiou also discussed important political issues at the joint press conference with Chairman of Georgia`s parliament Davit Bakradze. Petros Efthymiou confirmed the organization`s support to Georgia`s territorial integrity and said "the OSCE mission on Georgia`s territory should be re-established".
Russian delegates also commented on the issues of Georgia`s occupied territories and Russia`s role in the conflicts at the summit. Andrei Ilarionov, the former adviser to Russian president Vladimir Putin slammed the president`s policy saying "the program of the Russian authorities to change the acting political regime in Georgia is still in force". He said along with the latest corrections in Russia when Putin was sworn in as a president for the third term legally and for the fourth actually, provocations against Georgia and the Georgian authorities may intensify.
All the issues discussed at the Batumi summit will be summed up in a resolution which will be adopted by the OSCE at the summit in Monaco planned for July 2012.
The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Economic Conference is Batumi is supposed to last for two more days.
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