Jim Murphy

A day of two presidents (part two)

I'm on my way back to the UK via a quiet Munich airport at the moment. I left a peaceful, beautiful and very green Tbilisi very early this morning.

Again on this half of my trip I made a point of meeting both government and opposition representatives - especially important as both sides prepare for parliamentary elections on 21 May. I was delighted to meet President Mikhail Saakishvili - my second president of the day.

As a country, Georgia has come a long way since the "Rose Revolution" of 2003. Everyone I spoke to agreed that remarkable progress had been made in areas like corruption, for example eliminating bribes to traffic police. But there's still much to do. Democracy can still be deepened. Access to free and fair media will help opposition parties to develop into credible choices for voters.

The country is obviously focussed on recent developments in Abkhazia and South Ossetia - the areas of "frozen conflict". The shooting down of a Georgian unmanned aircraft and Russia's recent decisions to establish legal links and to increase the number of Russian peacekeepers have heightened tensions.

There needs to be a concerted diplomatic effort to resolve this dispute between Russia and Georgia. If we don't Georgia will slip backwards.

Posted at 10:51 08 May 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[1]