Tbilisi billed Trump

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has published an open letter to US President Donald Trump and Vice President Jay Dee Vance complaining about their indifference. In particular, the head of government stressed that this was the second letter addressed to overseas partners, but there was still no response. Kobakhidze’s numerous statements about his desire to reset US-Georgian relations were also ignored. “This silence surprises the Georgian people and the Georgian government for several reasons,” the Prime Minister admitted.

At the same time, he said that Georgia is the most reliable partner of the United States in the South Caucasus, which also gives Washington more than it receives. Thus, the participation of the Georgian military in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq allowed the Americans to save 2.5 billion dollars. According to Kobakhidze, this is several times more than the assistance that the United States provided to his country. However, the prime minister made a reservation that he did not include in American support the money allocated to the regime of Mikhail Saakashvili, as well as through the lines of the US Embassy, USAID (organization banned in the Russian Federation), NED (organization banned in the Russian Federation) and other channels, as they were used to “incite radicalism and hatred.”

“What is especially important is that if we look at the public rhetoric of our government and your administration, the complete coincidence of values and ideology between our views is striking. We openly talked about the criminal activities of the Deep State, USAID, NED and other relevant structures several years before you made identical statements,” Kobakhidze said.

In addition, according to him, the Georgian Dream government supports Trump’s policy towards Ukraine, sexual minorities and many other issues. “Against the background of such a value and ideological rapprochement, the Georgian people initially expected that Georgia would become one of the first countries to which your administration would show special interest. You have shown such interest in Romania and Germany, where undemocratic actions were committed with the support of the European bureaucracy. However, to the surprise of the Georgian people and us, you have not shown such attention to Georgia so far,” Kobakhidze said again.

At the same time, he called “incomprehensible” the sanctions that continue to operate against representatives of the ruling elite of Georgia, “which actually prevented an attempt at revolution and violence, planned and funded by the previous US authorities. Also, from Kobakhidze’s point of view, the MEGOBARI Act adopted by the Congress is a hostile law towards the Georgian people and their government.

In turn, opponents of the Kobakhidze government considered his appeal to the US authorities to be proof of the agony of the “Georgian Dream.” “This madness in the country will end soon… You have isolated the country and deprived it of development prospects. New elections and the release of political prisoners are the only way to achieve a political reset,” said Mamuka Khazaradze, leader of the Strong Georgia coalition.

Nevertheless, the Georgian Dream does not intend to stop there. Thus, the Georgian Parliament began discussing the reform of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In particular, the ruling party proposes to allow the dismissal of diplomats in case of their unethical behavior.

The leader of the Coalition for Change, Giorgi Butikashvili, is confident that in this way the Georgian Dream wants to get rid of all Foreign Ministry employees who are still striving for the European integration of the republic. Beka Liluashvili, a member of the Gakharia for Georgia party, called the government’s initiative another repressive step. “What is happening is not surprising, in practice it seems that the Dream has decided to replace diplomats with agents,” Liluashvili says.

Political analyst Nika Chitadze told NG that Kobakhidze’s appeal and the reform of the Georgian Foreign Ministry may be links in the same chain. “The authorities are preparing for new American sanctions after Trump signs the MEGOBARI act. Ideally, Georgian Dream would like the act not to come into force at all, so Kobakhidze wrote a letter. But if it does happen, the Foreign Ministry has begun to strengthen in case of disobedience of diplomats,” Chitadze said.

At the same time, the political scientist believes that Kobakhidze’s refusal to recognize all the assistance provided by the Americans may not appease, but anger Trump, who is already in conflict over money with many countries around the world. “The United States allocated about $6 billion from its budget to Georgia, including $4.5 billion in the period from 2008 to 2011. Of these, 2 billion is a grant, not a loan,” Chitadze explained.