Georgia dismisses foreign media reports that Georgian gov’t rejected Bridget Brink as US Ambassador

The Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that a Foreign Policy report stating that the Georgian government has rejected the candidacy of US foreign service officer Bridget Brink as the next ambassador is “far from reality”.

Foreign Policy wrote yesterday that Brink, who was slated to be named the new ambassador to Georgia, was allegedly rebuffed because of fears that she looks too favorably upon former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Current and former officials in Washington told Foreign Policy that Georgia has indicated it will not sign a diplomatic agreement… accepting the nomination of Bridget Brink, because of her alleged [positive] predisposition towards former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili,” FP reported.

Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Khatuna Totladze says that the information is false, and that the repetition of incorrect information is harmful.

We are speaking about the US, which is a strategic partner of Georgia. The information is far from reality and its repetition, even from the media, is harmful,” Totladze says.

Ruling Georgian Dream party member Giorgi Volski says that it is the decision of the United States who is appointed to the role.

He says that the Georgian government “has no resources” to influence the decision of the government of the United States.

• Ambassador Ross Wilson arrived to take up duties as chargé d’affaires, ad interim [a diplomat who head a mission in the case of absence of an ambassador], at the American Embassy in Tbilisi on 8 November 2018.  
• Over the course of a thirty-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, he served as American ambassador to Turkey (2005-2008) and Azerbaijan (2000-2003).  Elsewhere overseas, he held assignments at U.S. embassies in Moscow and Prague and the Consulate General in Melbourne, Australia, the US Embassy to Georgia reports.

The Deputy Chief of mission is Elizabeth Rood.