President Margvelashvili said on November that “crisis” within the ruling Georgian Dream coalition and “political confrontation” following arrests and filing of criminal charges against officials from the Defense Ministry and general staff of the armed forces, pose “threat to efficient functioning” of the state institutions, as well as to country’s Euro-Atlantic integration.

President Margvelashvili told Georgian journalists in Vienna, where he participates in the second UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries, that the president’s office has been watching closely “crisis” unfolding in the ruling coalition.

“But we have not made a statement on this issue because we believe that the coalition members should overcome this situation with their own resources,” Margvelashvili said.

“We have stressed for number of times that the country should be ruled with strong institutions and not from the backstage,” the President said.

“The existing situation brought us to the point, when the political confrontation poses threat to efficient functioning of institutions in the country; it poses threat to country’s Euro-Atlantic integration and most importantly to the Georgian army, which is guarantor of our country’s sovereignty,” Margvelashvili said.

“Therefore, upon my return back to Georgia we will get involved in resolving this process based on the state interests,” he added.

Defense Minister, Irakli Alasania, said on November 4 that recent developments involving arrests of MoD and general staff officials, as well as newly filed charges against army medical officers are “obviously politically” motivated.

“I want to clearly state that this is an attack on Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic choice; this is an attack on the structure, which has been and is distinguished with its successful reforms and is distinguished on the path of achieving this foreign policy goal,” Alasania said.