PM Gakharia responds to US Defense Authorisation Act

Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has welcomed the "deepening cooperation" between Georgia and the United States, underlined by the latest US Defense Authorization Act.

Gakharia was answering questions from the media on Friday about a range of subjects including US support for Georgia as noted in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)- passed by the Senate on Thursday.

Reaction to the NDAA Gakharia said the ongoing strategic partnership between the two states was "above all political or partisan interests" while acknowledging questions by individual Senate or Congress members towards his government.

Of course, our individual friends from the United States, be it congressmen or senators, may have certain question marks and they, as friends of Georgia, have the right to ask these questions, just as we have the right to answer those questions. You can see that over time, these questions are slowly being resolved," the PM told reporters.

The head of the government said "some people" were involved in attempts to use such legitimate questions to make the partnership a matter of "political processes" in Georgia, but stressed the efforts would not succeed. Gakharia also welcomed to the latest report of the US Secretary of State about the "process of democratisation" in Georgia.

"We are pleased that the secretary of state will assess the process of democratisation in Georgia. On the contrary, this is in our interest because no one, including us, has any doubts with regard to these processes."

"We are comfortable with the question marks that exist because democratisation in Georgia, ranging from freedom of expression, media pluralism, and the development of institutions to the electoral system, cannot be threatened by anything for the simple reason that the Georgian citizen has felt the value of freedom and justice very well; he feels the value of the freedom and pluralism of the media as well and now, he will understand how an electoral system that is closer to the proportional one will change the Georgian political culture for the better, and no one can turn this back. The more assessments there will be from Georgia's strategic partners in the process of consolidating Georgia's democracy, the more we will welcome them," the prime minister noted.