Ruling party official: US’ postponement of Noble Partner military exercise in Georgia “incomprehensible”

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party in the Parliament, on Monday said the United States’ postponement of this year’s Noble Partner military exercise in Georgia was an “incomprehensible” decision. 

Mdinaradze’s comments followed the US Department of Defence on Friday announcing the postponement of the latest edition of the drills was due to the Georgian Government's “false accusations” about the US Government and other western partners pressuring Georgia to open a second front of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine against Russia to alleviate pressure on Ukraine, and about the Western states’ involvement in two “coup attempts” against the ruling party over the recent years.

In his remarks over the matter, Mdinaradze highlighted the importance of normalising relations with the United States as Georgia's “main strategic partner”.

We are talking about rebooting relations, normalising them, and that our main strategic partner should remove the de facto visa restriction for Georgian citizens. Free trade, direct flights - we talk about these [subjects] and [then] we get an answer that they have cancelled the exercises. Then someone will say that this is an attempt by the United States to interfere in the elections of Georgia. We are not saying this, but if someone says it, then you [journalists] will come and [ask me] whether I agree or not", he said.

“Doubts about this may be legitimate, but that is not how we view matters. We do not go into the depths of the topic, and we think that this is at least an incomprehensible decision, against the background that Georgia is among the advanced countries in terms of the quality of democracy and the implementation of reforms. I think that very soon, for example in a few months, all such decisions will change, and it will depend on specific factors”, he concluded without specifying further.

Georgian Defence Minister Irakli Chikovani on Saturday said the US Defence Department’s decision to indefinitely postpone the multinational exercise - which had been originally scheduled to run from July 25 to August 6 - was “baffling”.