[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 821]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               RECONCILIATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, on Sunday, January 20, Mikhail Saakashvili 
was reinaugurated as President of the Republic of Georgia. He won an 
election that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, 
OSCE, referred to as ``the first genuinely competitive presidential 
election in the country, enabling the Georgian people to express their 
political choice.'' I wish President Saakashvili and the people of 
Georgia well.
  President Saakashvili's program of reform and integration into Euro-
Atlantic institutions, such as NATO, depends on the strength of 
Georgia's democracy. At the same time, membership in those institutions 
will reinforce and protect Georgia's democracy.
  When I spoke with President Saakashvili in November, I was confident 
that he understood the close connection between these two goals. In 
order to achieve them, reconciliation between the President and his 
political opponents is essential.
  Despite the findings of OSCE international monitors, the Georgian 
opposition repudiated the election's results and took to the street. In 
16 years of independence there has never been a peaceful transfer of 
power in Georgia. Perhaps the time has come to move the debate off the 
street and into Parliament.
  In my 35 years in the Senate, I have seen just how powerful a vehicle 
for change a democratically elected body can be. I hope the opposition 
parties will focus their energies on April's parliamentary elections, 
reinvigorating the Parliament and promoting progress from within.
  On the same day that they gathered to elect a President, 73 percent 
of the Georgian electorate affirmed their interest in Georgia joining 
NATO. I support their aspirations and I am confident that the people of 
Georgia, united by a sense of common purpose, can and will realize 
their full potential and achieve great things.

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