"I address you who are standing on Rustaveli this evening, as I myself have been many times. I am here in New York and behind me is the Statue of Liberty.
This is the symbol for which Georgia has always fought and for which we have come to this day. I'm with you, because today you represent free Georgia!
Georgia, which sees her future in Europe and won't let anyone take it away from her. This future belongs to our future generations, everyone!
This future is what our previous generations prepared for and are preparing for. Therefore, no one has the right to take your future away from you. No one has the right to set traps.
This law, which no one needed and which comes out of nowhere, if not something dictated by Moscow, can be repealed as you like, there is no way to send it to the Venice Commission (of the Council of Europe, ed.), the Venice Commission knows very well what kind of law it is. I said from day one that I would veto this law and I will veto it! I don't care about its article-by-article discussion, I don't care about its resemblance to some old American law, which we know very well to have a very different purpose. I only care about the future of Georgia. I am only interested in the Constitution, of which I am the guarantor, and in this constitution it is written that all the institutions of Georgia, and first of all me, but also the government, the government, is obliged to do everything to bring this country into the Union Union, so that the path of European integration is protected. And those who support this law today, all those who voted for this law today, are all violating this Constitution. Everyone is driving us away from Europe. I address our ambassadors abroad, who represent Georgia in various European countries, or here in America: what do we represent or what do you represent for this European future?! All together: you, the young people who are in Tbilisi, I, when I speak here [and I will have very important meetings], or from the United Nations rostrum, will say the same thing: that we do not want the law, that it is meaningless, the its meaning is none other than to take us away from Europe. We are all together today, we will be together tomorrow and we will bring this country to Europe. I promise you, because I made this promise to myself a long time ago."
