Ruling party official denounces “dirty” speculation on FM’s participation in OSCE Ministerial alongside Lavrov

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday rejected “absolutely dirty” claims by a part of the domestic opposition that the country’s Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili had “sat together” with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. 

The development followed some European foreign ministers refusing to attend the body’s ongoing meeting after an invitation was extended to Lavrov to attend it in Skopje, the capital city of Northern Macedonia.

Leaders of various states, including the occupying state, sometimes sit in the OSCE format, and it is unfortunate that the representative of the occupied state also has to be there”, Mdinaradze said in reference to Russia’s occupation of two of Georgia’s regions.

“However, the way you use this format, what messages you voice, what pragmatic and national issues can be resolved - this is another issue. But it is an absolutely dirty speculation that Darchiashvili is sitting together with Lavrov [at the meeting]”, the official continued.

Mdinaradze also claimed the critique was “not even a double standard” given officials from Georgia’s “strategic partners” were also present at the meeting.