TBILISI, December 15. /TASS/. There is no sense for Georgia to join any organizations at the expense of rejecting its values and traditions, Georgian President-elect Mikhail Kavelashvili said.
"If we don’t have our values, mentality, culture, language, faith, love for the motherland, what is the sense in joining any organization?" he said in an interview with the Imedi television channel.
"We want to be a member of the European Union as we are. We don’t reject integration," he noted, adding that Georgia’s authorities are open to a discussion on any topic, but the West shows no willingness to do that, being limited to criticism only.
The presidential election was held at Georgia’s parliament on December 14. The country’s new president was for the first time elected by an electoral college and not through a popular vote. The electoral college consisted of 300 members, including 150 members of the Georgian Parliament, 21 and 20 representatives of the Supreme Councils of Adjara and Abkhazia, respectively, as well as deputies from local authorities. Mikhail Kavelashvili, a former footballer and an ex-parliament member, was the only presidential candidate backed by the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party. The opposition has not recognized the results of the parliamentary vote held on October 26. He was elected the country’s sixth president by 224 college votes and will be inaugurated on December 29.
The European Union has repeatedly criticized Georgia’s authorities for a number of laws, including the one banning LGBT propaganda that was passed earlier this year.