PM thanks countries that “supported Georgia” at EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Wednesday thanked the countries that he said had “supported Georgia” at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, which on Monday reviewed the Government's suspension of negotiations for the opening of European Union accession talks and its response to ongoing public protests against the move.

Kobakhidze’s comments followed after Romanian, Italian and Spanish foreign offices rejected his statement, made on Tuesday, in which he extended his gratitude to Hungary, Slovakia, Italy, Spain and Romania for “defending the interests of the Georgian people” at the Council meeting.

Public sources reported that Italy and Spain were opposed to the idea of ​​sanctions, and this was consistent with the information received from our sources. Accordingly, we made a statement based on very reliable and trustworthy information, although you can see that this was also followed by speculation from the [domestic] opposition. I would like to thank all the countries that supported Georgia at the Council meeting”, the PM said.

He further added that Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on Monday had stated that Hungary, Slovakia, Luxembourg and several other countries had gone against the sanctions.

I made a statement yesterday, thanking five countries for their support for the Georgian people, and yesterday, three of these countries stubbornly insisted that they had never even considered supporting the Georgian people. In fact, you can see Kaja Kallas’ statement, where she says that Hungary, Slovakia, Luxembourg - I didn't mention Luxembourg unfortunately, and Luxembourg also needs to be thanked, if they do not deny this position of theirs. They deserve the gratitude for their support to the Georgian people”, the Government head continued.

“As for other countries, what information we had [...] [said that in the case of] Romania, there is a journalist Rikard Jozwiak, the Europe editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, whom the Georgian media often relies on, [and] who confirmed that Romania was one of those countries that went against the sanctions. However, later we saw that Romania was forced to take the opposite position”, he claimed.

This does not surprise anyone - you saw that even the Constitutional Court in Romania had changed its decision in one day [over domestic presidential elections] following a statement by Matthew Miller [Spokesperson for the US Department of State], who made a practically threatening statement against the Romanian Constitutional Court”, the PM alleged.

The PM further added that “on this backdrop no one is surprised” that Romania had been “forced to make a statement that was contradicting their actions” towards Georgia at the EU meeting.