Economy Minister: Georgia “reliable partner” for EU, US, UK sanctions enforcement

Georgian Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili on Monday said Georgia was an “exceptionally reliable partner” for the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States in the enforcement of the international sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Commenting during the visit of officials of the EU and the two countries to Georgia, Davitashvili said it was “very important for us to work closely with our strategic partners in terms of sanctions enforcement and prevention of circumvention of the sanctions”.

We do not imagine that the implementation of sanctions is an easy process, even from the countries imposing the sanctions. In many cases, there are risks, including in terms of trying to use Georgia transit from these countries [...] Georgia does not circumvent sanctions - on the contrary, Georgia helps its partners in the prevention of sanctions evasion”, he said.

Davitashvili also noted a number of trainings, meetings and seminars had been hosted to ensure the sanctions are “properly implemented”.

There is a need for proper guidelines and proper communication of these guidelines to the executive officers. In this regard, we have many forms of cooperation, good practice of cooperation. We will discuss exactly these issues together with our partners, [and] we will summarise the work done since the imposition of sanctions”, Davitashvili said.

In the visit running between Monday and Tuesday, European Union Sanctions Envoy David O’Sullivan is joined by Jim O’Brien, the Head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the US State Department, and Kumar Iyer, the Director General for Economics, Science and Technology at the UK Foreign Office.