Georgia is preparing to divorce its strategic partners

Four days have passed since Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze addressed an open letter to US President Donald Trump complaining about Washington’s indifference to Tbilisi, but the US authorities continue to remain silent. The Georgian Dream government decided to back up the statement with a parliamentary resolution and the words of Foreign Minister Maki Bochorishvili, but this did not help either. At the same time, the EU announced the beginning of a “divorce” with Georgia.

The Georgian parliament has adopted a resolution stating that the so-called “MEGOBARI act”, which provides for sanctions against members of the country’s ruling elite, their relatives and everyone associated with them, is based on false information. 

So, the deputies claim that there is no rollback from democracy in the country, Georgia is not moving closer to Russia and China and is not blocking Euro-Atlantic integration.

“According to the assessment of the Georgian Parliament, the harsh, unfair attitude towards the country and double standards can only be caused by one thing – the deep state could not forgive Georgia for failing to comply with the demand put forward by a representative of the deep state during meetings with high–ranking government officials to “open a second front,” the parliament resolution says.

It also says that Tbilisi hopes for the victory of the Trump administration over its internal opponents, after which the United States “will regain the former glory that they have earned for 200 years.” The Georgian MPs once again reminded that they are ready to cooperate with their American colleagues in order to improve relations between Tbilisi and Washington.

At the same time, Bochorishvili said that Georgia continues to consider itself a strategic partner of the United States, but it is important for her to know what the American authorities think about this. “Of course, it is important to know what positions exist in the White House regarding how relations with Georgia should be built. We emphasize once again that for Georgia, the strategic partnership with the United States is a very important and noteworthy issue that requires timely identification of certain positions,” the Minister said.

Meanwhile, the republic’s other strategic partner, the European Union, is willing to comment on bilateral relations, without particularly choosing polite words for this. For example, as Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said, the EU made Georgia a candidate for membership in the organization, but instead of starting a honeymoon, Tbilisi chose a divorce. “We must be honest with them: if they go the wrong way, they will move further away from the European future,” Bettel concluded.

European Union Ambassador to Georgia Pavel Herchinsky said that instead of protecting human rights and developing democracy, the Georgian Dream launched repressions. For example, the diplomat said that opponents of the authorities have been beaten and intimidated for the past few months, and opposition parties have been trying to ban them. “That is why we, as the European Union, are trying to impose sanctions against those responsible for the violence,” Herczynski said.

“The Georgian authorities say every day that they expect a response from the United States. Of course, the opposition has had strong ties in Congress since the time of Mikhail Saakashvili’s rule, which is why the MEGOBARI act was passed there. Apparently, someone did not like that Georgia had turned from a non-governmental organization into a sovereign state. At the same time, Georgian Dream fully supports Trump and expects reciprocity from him. So far, during his second term as president, we have heard only a couple of phrases that it was not he who surrendered Georgia to Russia, but George W. Bush. He constantly says about the same thing about Ukraine,” political analyst Gia Abashidze told NG.

In general, the expert admits that Tbilisi has never been among the top priorities of American foreign policy. From his point of view, the republic may be on the fourth page of the list of issues that Washington is working on. “Trump is known as a predatory businessman. At the same time, Georgia, even taking into account the talk about the “Middle Corridor”, cannot bring him tangible profits,” Abashidze believes.

In this regard, he did not rule out that Trump might ignore the calls of the Georgian Dream to start relations from scratch and impose new sanctions instead. In this case, the strategic partnership between the two countries is likely to remain only at the level of defense departments and law enforcement agencies.

“Under these conditions, Tbilisi will continue its multi-vector policy. Earlier, Ukraine and some EU countries adopted sanctions against the republic, but it is still friends with them unilaterally. The Georgian Dream proceeds from the fact that politicians should not interfere with the friendship of peoples. Most likely, the same thing will happen with the United States. This will continue until the end of hostilities in Ukraine, after which there is hope for a fundamental revision of all issues,” Abashidze said.