TBILISI, March 9 – A delegation of parliamentarians from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is in Georgia this week for meetings with government officials, opposition figures and civil society groups.
The visit offers an opportunity for the country’s rivaling camps to voice their international message about how to understand political events after years of confrontation between government and opposition.
The delegation arrived on Saturday, and is due to stay until Tuesday. It is led by OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pere Joan Pons Sampietro and also includes Vice President and Special Representative for the South Caucasus Luis Graça of Portugal, Political Affairs and Security Committee Vice Chair Jevrosima Pejović of Montenegro, Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions Committee Vice Chair Christine Blower of the United Kingdom, and Secretary General Roberto Montella.
According to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly press service, the visit is meant to give the delegation a chance to exchange views with Georgian counterparts on recent political developments, democracy, security and regional stability. The program includes meetings with a broad range of political actors and civil society representatives.
One of the early stops was Khurvaleti, a village near the occupation line, where the delegation was taken on Sunday, by Levan Makhashvili, chair of parliament’s European Integration Committee. According to the Georgian parliament, Makhashvili briefed the visitors on Russia’s ongoing occupation of Georgian territories, the problems facing local residents, and the security risks linked to the occupation line.
On Monday, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili met the delegation in Tbilisi. The parliament press service said Papuashvili welcomed the visit and thanked the group for what it described as a readiness for open and constructive dialogue. After the meeting, Papuashvili said the OSCE PA president had repeated the same core conclusion that an OSCE/ODIHR mission voiced after Georgia’s 2024 elections: that the country has an elected government.
The opposition gave the delegation a very different picture. Former parliament speaker Gigi Tsereteli said after meeting the group that talks focused on how the situation in Georgia could be defused, and that there are conditions the government must satisfy before dialogue can begin on what free elections in the country should look like.
Civil society groups also used the visit to press their concerns. Levan Natroshvili, head of the election watchdog ISFED, described the meeting between NGOs and the delegation as constructive and said the visitors were interested in the state of democracy, human rights and the broader civic sector in Georgia.
The visit will continue on Tuesday, when the delegation will meet with Public Defender Levan Ioseliani.
