US senators, officials back Georgia, say ‘world is more dangerous, less free due to Russia’
The US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing named ‘the future of US policy towards Russia,’ yesterday. Photo: wtok.com.
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US senators and state officials have expressed their support for Georgia during the recent hearing at the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, dedicated to the US relations and policy towards Russia.
Senator Jim Risch has stated that the US is “well-aware” of the Russian aggression in the region, saying that the “US relations with Russia is at a low point.”
Of course, we all know about the invasions of Georgia and Ukraine over the years, and about the poisoning of Russian people on other sovereign soil. The world today is more dangerous and less free because of the Russian Federation. As a result, the U.S. relationship with Russia is at a low point,” he said.
Risch said that during the height of the Cold War, ‘our leaders had a lifeline to ensure that neither side made a disastrous miscalculation - the famous red phone’.
Today, our engagements with Russia are few, and there is a growing risk of a strategic miscalculation on the seas, the ground, or in the skies. To be clear, our problems are with the Putin and his cronies,” he stated.
Speech by Senator Bob Memendez.
Senator Bob Memendez has stated that “first, we must make very clear that so many examples of Kremlin aggression since the invasion of Georgia in 2008 are simply unacceptable and cannot become the norm in international affairs.”
Russia is clearly not a country that belongs in the G7,” Memendez said.
Senators Mitt Romney and Cory Gardner have condemned the Russian aggression against Georgia and Ukraine.
Under US State Secretary for Political Affairs David Hale said that the US has taken a “significant financial obligation" to help its partners-Georgia and Ukraine “boost their self-defense capabilities.”
We have allocated 170 million USD in military aid to Georgia since 2014, 94 million USD of the 170 million USD for 2018-2019 fiscal years,” Hale said.
Christopher Ashley Ford, the US Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation, re-confirmed that since 2014 the US boosted its support for the regional stability to respond to the Russian aggression.
Four American senators have written to president Trump urging him not to consider readmitting Russia in G7 intergovernmental economic organisation and citing the ongoing occupation of two Georgian regions by Russian troops for their stance.
Senator Lindsey Graham praises Georgia's democratic reforms t a meeting held with Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze who is currently visiting US. With the efforts of Lindsey Graham the subcommittee of Foreign Operations and Related Programs has prepared a bill to increase the budget of US support to Georgia.
Georgia’s Deputy Parliament Speaker Tamar Chugoshvili, who is now holding meetings in Washington with Georgian MPs, stresses that the US Senate’s support to the resolution of Georgia’s territorial integrity is of high importance.
The Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate has approved a bill featuring measures to counter Russian influence in Europe and Eurasia, including in Georgia.