UK sanctions official “truly grateful” for steps taken by Georgian Gov’t to prevent circumvention of sanctions

Kumar Iyer, the Director General for Economics, Science and Technology at the United Kingdom Foreign Office, on Wednesday said he was “truly grateful” for the steps taken by the Georgian Government “so far” to prevent the circumvention of sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Iyer noted one of the reasons for his visit to Georgia was to discuss the continuation of the partnership between the latter and the UK in preventing the import of military goods to Russia, explaining that the officials of the UK, the United States and the European Union had already visited several countries and planned to visit more for this reason.

Sanctions are mostly evaded through land borders and therefore, we are now focusing on what additional mechanisms can be introduced to tighten controls”, Iyer said at the press briefing after holding meetings with Georgian authorities over the past two days.

The UK official emphasised that the possibility of sharing the “best experience” of his country, the US and the EU for the enforcement of sanctions had been also discussed during the meetings and noted they had offered the Georgian side to bring experts and hold additional training to “further refine the control mechanisms”.