TRANSCRIPT:
The Voice of America had played immeasurable, valuable, I would say strategic role to reach different decision-making circles with objective, truthful information with range of different options and ideas, including the importance of free speech and free exchange of people and ideas. And throughout these turbulent years, the Voice of America has been helping, assisting Georgians to understand the state of affairs worldwide.
And by the way, including in our own country. But also alerting U.S. decision-makers that security and stability in countries like Georgia was critical and is still critical to the national security and the values of the United States of America. So helping to convert Georgia into a truly strong and viable, a truly functioning democracy, United States of America should keep Georgia in its strategic agenda as Georgia’s geography, its immediate neighborhood, shapes and supports America’s interests across a broad span of challenges and opportunities.
And in that regard, of course, the Voice of America was, is, and should be an essential and valuable instrument to tackle the issues and the problems of rapidly transforming regions around the world, including the South Caucasus, where many of the United States’ vital interests converge.
Published
Japaridze is a former Georgian diplomat and lawmaker who served as Georgia’s ambassador to the United States and later chaired the Georgian Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee.