Saakashvili Lied At the Nuclear Safety Summit

Recently, South Korea’s capital city Seoul hosted a Nuclear Safety Summit attended by leaders of 54 countries including: USA, EU, Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The UN, Interpol and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also participated in the working process of the Summit.

The participants discussed the following issues during the Summit: cooperation against nuclear terror, nuclear protection and eradication of illegal trafficking of nuclear materials.

Reportedly, President Mikheil Saakashvili gave a speech at the Summit and spoke about the “progress” achieved in the field of nuclear safety in Georgia.

The Georgian Green Party wonders how it is possible for the President to speak about progress in nuclear safety when the Parliament of Georgia recently annulled the Law about Nuclear and Radiation Safety that was drafted by the Green Party in 1998 and in effect in the country until now. According to this law, Georgia was declared a state free of nuclear facilities, technologies and radioactive remains. The new law, however, is an attempt to turn Georgia into the center for construction of nuclear facilities and a transit corridor for nuclear technologies.

According to the 1998 law,

1. construction of nuclear facilities including nuclear stations;
2. import, transit, export, re-export and import of radioactive remains;
3. export, import, transport and re-export of nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosives

were prohibited in the territory of Georgia.

According to the “new” 2012 law,

1. Construction of nuclear facilities including nuclear stations;
2. re-export of radioactive remains;
3. export, import, transport and re-export of nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosives’

are allowed in Georgia.

Thus, the Georgian Green Party

• declares that M. Saakashvili’s statement about the progress in nuclear and radioactive safety in Georgia was false and deceived the international community;

• asks the Nuclear Safety Summit, UN, USA, and the European Commission to clarify how the draft-law complies with international requirements on nuclear safety and their recommendations on the prohibition of transportation of nuclear technologies to several countries in the region.

Georgian Green Party