Russian troops are on the territory of Georgia without Georgia's consent, so it is occupation, - German Ambassador to Georgia Hubert Knirsch said in an interview with PalitraNews TV.

"You focus on the word “occupation" and I certainly understand this. Russian troops are on the territory of Georgia without Georgia's consent, so it is occupation. However, we must not make a mistake and describe the whole conflict by just one word. We all know that the conflict between Abkhazians, Georgians and South Ossetians emerged in the early 90s, during political changes, and I think that mistakes, regretful mistakes, were made by both sides. So this is a long story and this conflict has a lot of layers: the local layer - Georgians, Abkhazians, South Ossetians, representatives of other nationalities; the layer of the Russian conflict against Georgia; and finally, a geopolitical layer of a conflict between the renewed and stronger conflict between Russia and the West. These are difficult conflicts, which require the involvement and diplomacy of all of us. As a diplomat, I believe that these conflicts can be solved over time," the Ambassador said.

As for Georgia’s relations with NATO and the EU in this context, the ambassador asserts that Russia is not a player in these processes.

"Nobody has the right to veto Georgia's right to become a member of NATO or the EU. However, Russia is a factor that we should take into account in security policy and that's true. The United States and Germany have close relations with Russia," the Ambassador said.