Interview with Georgian President Saakashvili

• published: 21 Jul 2015
• views: 3

SHOTLIST 1. Set-up of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili 2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgian President: "If NATO sends a sign of weakness, and clearly this invasion was intended to deter, to scare NATO away, if NATO gets scared away, then this will be a never-ending story. I don't believe Georgia should become a point of contention, or conflict between NATO and Russia in some way. What I believe in is that NATO should be able to stand up for its principles, no matter who is trying to challenge those principles. It should not be directed against Russia, but it should clearly be directed for the sake of principles for NATO and for the future of the North Atlantic (Treaty) Organisation." 3. Cutaway 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgian President: "Russia's aggressiveness was directed at, you know, shaking the foundations of the alliance and their decision making process. And is NATO going to compromise on those basic issues? Well, will this compromise be just limited to Georgia or will there be a never-ending story to apply toward other regions? Will, you know, extreme nationalistic elements in Russia see this as a major victory, and so try to push for more victories on their side? These are the questions to be asked." 5. Cutaway 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgian President: "People are saying, 'look Georgia has conflicts, so maybe Georgia cannot be accepted, but maybe we can accept Ukraine.' Because they still don't have the conflict. But if you put it this way, you automatically are going to get conflict in Ukraine. That's how the other side perceives this kind of open democratic debate." 7. Cutaway 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgian President: "Georgian army has basically kept most of its resources intact, and we've kept 95 percent of all our military resource intact. We have now more than enough weapons and we have now more than enough ammunition. And we don't expect to get anything from the US, we haven't got anything recently from the US and we will not be getting any large scale hardware, or kind of any military material assistance from the US. This is very clear. We don't need to." 9. Cutaway 10. SOUNDBITE (English) Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgian President: "No matter what kind of theoretical assistance we could have got from anybody, there is no way Georgia can fight wars with Russia, and this is something which should be made very clear. All this talk about Americans re-arming Georgia, or some others coming to re-arming Georgia has just been part of the propaganda." 11. Cutaway 12. SOUNDBITE (English) Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgian President: "No occupation, invasion of this scale and so unjustified from another country, has succeeded in the long run, even in the last century. And you know, and in the 21st, it will be very, very short-term, but you know, short-term might mean months, might mean years. But I think it's still short term." 13. Wide of Saakashvili STORYLINE Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili urged NATO on Thursday not to push his country away in the wake of Moscow's military campaign, warning that showing weakness would cause a "never-ending story" of Russian aggression. In an interview with The Associated Press before a visit by NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) leaders next week, Saakashvili said Russia invaded Georgia to keep the ex-Soviet republic out of the Western alliance. "If NATO sends a sign of weakness, and clearly this invasion was intended to deter, to scare NATO away, if NATO gets scared away, then this will be a never-ending story," Saakashvili said. Saakashvili has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership for Georgia. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/2ad8522261194c0d2d35802988a3f27d Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork