Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has made a speech at Joe Biden's virtual summit.
In her speech, Zurabishvili said that Biden's initiative was well-timed as significant challenges have been posed to global democracy today, and even war has been waged against it.
Among the challenges, both old and new, global democracy has to address, Zurabishvili named occupation, territory disputes, the hybrid war, misinformation, economic pressure on various countries, internal threats, polarization, hate speech, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Zurabishvili's words, Georgia also has to address different threats as Russia has occupied 20% of its territory, and in these regions, they have trampled on human rights and democracy.
According to Salome Zurabishvili, Georgia, as a small country, finds it hard to fight against hybrid threats and polarization.
''We must cope with the challenges and move forward on the path Georgia chose 30 years ago, the path which has helped us overcome different obstacles and pushed us to build democracy, achieve stability and progress.
The path has proved successful for Georgia and made it a reliable partner of NATO and associated partner of the EU,'' Zurabishvili said, adding that the Georgian government has undertaken responsibilities before the EU and NATO, but performing these responsibilities will not prove sufficient unless Georgia ends polarization and segregation.
''As the President of Georgia, I am making a pledge to launch an inclusive process, a nationwide dialogue which will include the entire public in order to perceive our modern history together, overcome pain, and move forward. Unless we create a public discourse based on mutual respect and start talking about the past and perceiving what has happened, we will fail to build bridges between each other.
This is the path to a consolidated democracy which nobody can oppose,'' she concluded.
