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.