Georgia renounces the use of force. A legal commitment dictated by politics
Quoting Victor Hugo ("A day will come when all of you, nations of the continent, without losing your distinct qualities and your glorious individuality, you will merge closely into a superior unity, and you will constitute the European brotherhood.) and Immanuel Kant ("You cannot be ready to be free until you are free") recalling the foundations of the Rose Revolution (which has lost its petals a little today :-), the Georgian president delivered a number of charms to MEPs warning against Russia which seeks to divide the Europe but making a peaceful unilateral commitment.
Commitment not to use force
« In order to prove that Georgia is definitely committed to a peaceful resolution of its conflict with the Russian Federation, we made a unilateral commitment today to declare that Georgia can never use force to restore its territorial integrity and sovereignty, and to resort only to peaceful means in its quest for disoccupation and reunification. Saakashvili solemnly announced, explaining that he was once again sending a letter to this effect to the UN Secretary General and the OSCE. " Even if the Russian Federation refuses to withdraw its occupying forces, even if its militias increase human rights violations, Georgia would retain the right to defend itself only in the event of a new attack and invasion of 80% of the territory Georgian remaining under the effective control of the Georgian government. "" We all want – I want – Russia to be a partner and not an enemy. » he added.
A return to reason
For President Mikheil Saakashvili, there was, in fact, no other "reasonable" choice. The day after the NATO summit in Lisbon, which sealed a major reconciliation between the United States and NATO with Russia, he understood that he had not only lost the military battle one summer of 2008 but that he had, well and truly, lost the political battle. What the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, in his sense of formulas summed up as follows: Georgia is destined to join NATO. (But) we want to welcome members who have solved their border problems solved his border problems. We don't want to import problems into NATO, we have enough to solve. »(1)
(1) Full quote: “It (Georgia) is destined to join NATO. You know that it was Germany and France, in 2008 in Bucharest, who opposed it. Mr. BUSH at the end of his mandate absolutely wanted. I draw your attention to what that would have been like with the Abkhazia and Ossetia affair. But they are destined to return, we have no problem with that. Here again, we wish to welcome members who have solved their border problems. We don't want to import problems into NATO, we have enough to solve. »Comment: NATO proceeded in Lisbon, indeed, to a new division, with the installation of a double anti-missile shield, as in the good old days of Yalta, which one could summarize as follows: to you the responsible for ensuring security in the East (NB: the Ex-USSR without the Baltic countries), the West is ours. The Georgian president wisely draws the consequence.
