Mr. Nikoloz Samkharadze:

Of course, this political polarisation between the political parties of different ideologies will continue. To go back to the Deputy’s question, a short answer is that polarisation is the biggest problem in all of these 12 recommendations.

On the issue of regional security and the regional dimension, the committee will know that Georgia is playing a very important role in mediating the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We are basically the only country, if not in the world, then for sure in the wider region that enjoys trust and credibility both in Yerevan and in Baku. We want to use this asset for establishing peace and stability in the south Caucasus. We have initiated the idea of a peaceful Caucusus and we invited the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan to come to Tbilisi. They have met already in Tbilisi. We have also invited the Heads of State of Armenia and Azerbaijan. We have approval for the Azeri President to come to Tbilisi and we expect that the Armenian Prime Minister will also take up this offer, and we will have a high-level trilateral meeting in Tbilisi for possibly getting closer to a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Of course, it will be difficult but we believe it is our duty to spare no effort to have this peace treaty achieved between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and we will continue to mediate in these talks.

As for strategic projects, the middle corridor is becoming more and more active and there are more and more goods that are transported from Central Asia to Europe through the middle corridor. We will start to build a deep-water seaport on the Black Sea this year at Anaklia, which will increase the volume of cargo transit through the south Caucasus. We also have good relations with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and we try to attract their goods through the south Caucasus and on to Europe. Georgia is also becoming very interesting to and is a key transit route for the European Union. Georgia's independence and its integration into the European Union is becoming a vital interest for the EU because it opens up a vast region of Central Asia to Europe whereby Europe can get connected to that region through Georgia. I am not only talking about-----