EU Ambassador to Georgia commented on the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov.

“We are here to uphold the sovereignty and the respect for borders and security. We have been doing this very actively, including through the EU monitoring mission here and through our direct engagement with many others, in order to make sure that the conflict resolution is being handled in the correct manner.

You may have seen yesterday also an announcement that we are intending to devote more resources to help Georgia’s armed forces develop their medical and engineering capabilities, which is important both for civilians here in case of emergencies, but it’s also important in terms of building up resilience and security here in Georgia, including in the role that Georgian Armed Forces have had as a partner to the European Union in international missions. With regard to the choice of their security arrangements, we believe that this is in their hands and should be respected by each and every state”, - said Carl Hartzell.