Ruling party official highlights “importance” of strategic partnership with US

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said the country’s strategic partnership with the United States was “important” to the Government.

In his remarks over the upcoming inauguration of the United States President-elect Donald Trump, Kaladze claimed Trump's team was “seeking to defeat the deep state”, which he claimed would “change a lot not only for the United States, but also for the world”.

The inauguration of Donald Trump is very important. We very much hope that relations will be completely rebooted. We have repeatedly expressed our readiness to be good friends of the United States, to further deepen relations”, the ruling party official said.

“Strategic partnership and friendship are important to us, and we welcome the messages that we hear from Trump's team. As they themselves say, first of all, they must defeat the deep state, which will change many things not only for the United States, but also for the world”, he continued.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Monday said he hoped Trump would succeed in his plan to “defeat the deep state”, an alleged covert global network, emphasising the success would be “vital” for strengthening and normalising Georgia-US relations.