PM Kobakhidze: “Georgia is ready to restore strategic partnership with United States”

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Saturday, in his interview with Euronews, said the country was “ready to restore the strategic partnership with the United States” under the Trump administration, which was suspended by its predecessor.

“So we are very much happy that our messages are the same, coinciding with the new administration's messages. And of course, these developments make us very optimistic that we can restore the partnership with the United States”, Kobakhidze emphasised.

The PM pointed out the Georgian Government and people were “optimistic” due to recent statements coming from the US, including about the activities of the United States Agency for International Development and National Endowment for Democracy, adding “we have been talking about these problems since 2021”.

He discussed the country’s transparency law [requiring registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as pursuing the interests of a foreign power if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad], saying it “has been criticised by the US Embassy very heavily under the previous administration”.

“This law was just about transparency, about submitting the annual financial declarations by the NGOs to the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, and the US Embassy under the previous administration said that it was a black day for Georgia”, the PM noted.

The head of the Government also highlighted Georgia’s “full-fledged membership in the European Union” as a “very strong foreign policy priority”, affirming “we will do our best to promote our European path”.

“We are facing some significant challenges with European bureaucracy, but we are still very optimistic that Georgia's new membership by 2030 is achievable. So that's our medium-term goal and we will be consistent in terms of following this goal”, Kobakhidze said, expressing hope ”the approach towards Georgia will be more fair in the next upcoming years”.

“We stand ready to consistently fulfill all the obligations deriving from the association agenda [2014 EU-Georgia Association Agreement], [..] the DCFTA [Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement ]”, he emphasised.

In reply to the question about the plans to reopen the Russian embassy in Tbilisi, the PM said Georgia had “no space for restoring diplomatic relations” with Russia “because of the occupation of our two historic regions [Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions]”.

“The territorial integrity of Georgia is, of course, one of the national issues for our country, for our people. This territorial integrity is recognised by the international community, and of course, we have to defend our national interests in this respect, but our vision is peaceful”, the PM noted, adding “non-peaceful solution is absolutely impossible in this case”.

Kobakhidze also highlighted his Government’s “pragmatic policy”, calling it “the key content of our policy towards Russia”.

“We [the government] are keeping the trade and economic relations with Russia, and that's how we are going to run it further”, he added.

He also underscored the importance of peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in ending the war, reiterating “from the very beginning, from February 2022, we have been saying the peace, ceasefire has no alternative” and the international community “should be fully concentrated on promoting [it]”.

Addressing Georgia’s strategic role as a transit door between Asia and Europe, Kobakhidze underlined the Government’s intention to “restore this historic function for Georgia as much as possible”, adding “we are investing into our infrastructure, including the highways, the seaports, the airports, [...]” that would lead to “creating some new opportunities” for the country.