During the reception on September 2, Salome Zourabichvili, the President of Georgia, hosted participants of the 8th Tbilisi International Conference at the Orbeliani Palace. 

President Zourabichvili stated, "Georgia has always longed to be independent of empires, especially that of its northern neighbor," describing the current situation as a tragedy for Georgia. She condemned the labeling of Georgia’s partners as a "war party" while remaining silent about the neighbor that had occupied 20% of Georgia’s territory. 

The President condemned the rhetoric of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the GD Honorary Chairman, who not only "declared war on our partners and called them a [global] war party, but also declared war on his own people." She also condemned the GD’s announcement of intent to ban political parties, GD's statements about receiving the constitutional majority, and the Constitutional Court’s attempts "to claim that the Russian law does not deprive Georgia of its European future."

Salome Zourabichvili stated that all of this was "unacceptable" and that the Georgian people had made it "very clear" that they "do not accept this new image of Georgia and that they are not ready to submit to this new authoritarian regime and power." She indicated that the next step for the Georgian nation and youth would be to express the same sentiment through the elections, calling it "the way to stability." She emphasized, "I'm not one of those people who say: 'Well, let's see what happens at the polls, and the next day, we'll see what happens in the streets.' No, what happens will happen at the polls, at the ballot box. No power in this country can override the will of the people. No. There is a possibility of rigging the elections to the point of going against the massive expression of the will of the Georgian people."

Zourabichvili noted her collaboration with various pro-European political parties on the Georgian Charter, which she described as the path for Georgia to meet EU recommendations and begin negotiations with the EU, similar to Ukraine and Moldova. Calling the Charter "the key to the door that should be opened for Georgia," she stated that "as soon as the Georgian people openly give their support to both the Charter and this path," she would be "the ambassador of this Charter to our European and American friends."