US ambassador announces retirement, ending 33-year career

US Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly has announced that he will retire once his mission in Georgia concludes at the end of March, bringing an end to a 33-year career. 

Kelly stated at a conference on Georgia-US relations in Tbilisi today that he was not happy that his mission was coming to an end.

Looking back on my three years here, I see many significant benchmarks of Georgia’s Western integration:  signing an Association Agreement with the European Union, initiating the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package, opening the Joint Training and Evaluation Center, and achieving visa-free travel to the Schengen zone to name just a few. 

Perhaps most importantly, I was witness to three elections deemed open and largely transparent by international standards," Kelly said.  

He dedicated a long speech to his first and subsequent impressions of Georgia and stated that the country had shown "incredible progress.”

Kelly said that Georgia is a "special country” for him and that he would never be able to say goodbye.

The American diplomat recalled his first visit to Tbilisi, in 1976, when he was a student.

He stated that the Georgian people and culture made a "huge impression” on him, despite the fact that Georgia was going through a difficult phase.

The ambassador emphasized that despite different political views, the country was unanimous about its Western goals.

Throughout his career Kelly has held many significant positions, including top roles in the US State Department, such as head of the Russian Affairs Department and spokesman under former Secretary Hillary Clinton. He also has extensive experience working on issues relating to NATO, Russia, and the Balkans.

• Kelly’s most recent role, before coming to Georgia in 2015,  saw him serve as the US Department of State’s Diplomat in Residence at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a position he has held since 2013. 
• Prior to that, Kelly served for three years (2010-2013) as the US envoy to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, Austria.
• Earlier in his career, Kelly held US representative roles in Italy, Turkey, Austria, Serbia and the former USSR.
• The ambassador will enter the world of academia immediately after he retires, giving lectures at Northwestern University in Chicago from April.