NEW SECURITY ARCHITECTURE

NEW SECURITY ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE AND ITS IMPACT ON GEORGIA

The conference focused on the recent developments in the world and highlighted the role of Georgia in the new world agenda. Georgia as a victim of Russian aggression, by default, appeared in the center of those narratives and new regional or international arrangements, as Russian war against Ukraine unified almost entire civilized world and opened the doors to completely new security narratives. Consequently, those circumstances give rise to new opportunities and a vision for cooperation and integration in the country. The main purpose of the conference was to support the dialogue and embolden discussion beyond the current state of war and technicalities of filling EU questionnaire by Georgia. Panel discussions analyzed aftermath of the war in Ukraine, its impact on Georgia, and its national security, and it proposed to explore, analyze and discuss the essence of European integration beyond formal procedures.

The opening remarks were made by Tinatin Khidasheli, the chairperson at Civic IDEA and, Ketevan Khutsishvili - Executive Director, Open Society Georgia Foundation. Followed by the speeches of  Salome Zourabichvili - President of Georgia and Carl Hartzell - Ambassador of the EU to Georgia.

The event brought together all the stakeholders: government, opposition, civic society and the international community, representatives of the Georgian civil sector and academia, it brought various already existing discussion formats under one umbrella. The consensus of all parties was critical, as it is concerning that Russian aggression in Ukraine primarily disconnected political elites, at a time when demands of a vigorous national resilience policy should be a priority. 

The main question that was raised during the panel discussions was- why we aspire to EU membership and work hard and boundless on healing deep wounds and filling large gaps that exist between Georgia – perfect on paper and real-time Georgia and the discussions tried to analyze it and draw the global picture.

During the event, several panel discussions were conducted on diverse themes:

• The first Panel Discussion - “Aftermath the War: Reconsidering the Georgia’s European Future”, the speakers on the panel were Andrius Kalindra - Ambassador of Lithuania to Georgia;  David Usupashvili - former Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia (2012-2016); Sergi Kapanadze - former Deputy Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia (2016-2020);

Moderated by Nino Gelashvili - Senior Editor, anchor of  “Dilis Saubrebi”, RFE/RL Georgian Service

• The second Panel – “Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic Aspirations in the light of the Russia-Ukraine war”. The speakers during the panel were Mark Clayton - British Ambassador to Georgia; Tengiz Pkhaladze - Associate Professor, Georgian Institute of Public Affairs;  Tinatin Khidasheli - Minister of Defence of Georgia (2015-2016);  Ivliane Haindrava - Deputy Head of National Security Council of Georgia (2014-2018) and Kakhaber Kemoklidze - Head of National Security Council’s Office of  Georgia (2019-2021).

      Moderated by Ekaterine Tsimakuridze - Chairperson, Democracy Index – Georgia.

• Final, the third panel – “The Challenges of European Integration - What is next?”. Penalists: Kasianov Andrii – Chargé d’affaires of Ukraine in Georgia; Maka Botchorishvili – Chair of the EU Integration Committee of the Parliament of Georgia; Tamar Khulordava - Chair of the EU Integration Committee of the Parliament of Georgia (2016-2019);  Vano Chkhikvadze - EU Integration Program Manager at the Open Society Georgia Foundation; Kakha Gogolashvili - Director of the Centre of EU Studies at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS) and  Levan Dolidze -Ambassador of Georgia to NATO (2013-2014).

Moderated by Tamar Khidasheli - Director, Democracy Research Institute (DRI).

The conference aroused great interest in both the governmental and non-governmental sectors.  It was attended by 110 people instead of the 60 invited participants. The event was actively covered by almost all TV channels, both opposition and pro-government, as well as almost all news agencies and Internet broadcasts.

Following the event, a number of structures contacted us and expressed an interest in participating in future events. Hereby, we can confidently state that the conference was a huge success, answering pertinent questions and, most importantly, demonstrating to the international community Georgia's true interests, goals, and aspirations.