Georgia: American Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Mike Turner were in Georgia this week, visiting representatives of the Georgian Government, opposition parties, and the non-governmental sector.
Shaheen affirmed the United States’ commitment to supporting the Georgian people’s aspirations towards European integration. She also stated that the US will not be inactive in the face of democratic backsliding and false statements aimed at the United States.
Jeanne Shaheen highlighted the need for mutual cooperation, stating, “We need to see free and fair elections and a good-faith effort to repeal the Foreign Agents Act. The Government of Georgia should take the first step to return to the right path, and we are eagerly waiting for its proposals.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the Prime Minister of Georgia, said the Government had already clearly told its colleagues how they saw the reset of Georgian-American relations.
Mayor of the capital, Kakha Kaladze, told journalists, “At the level of statements, what we heard from them was a campaign of lies about the transparency law. They claimed that transparency is bad. When I’m doing something wrong, if you’re my friend, you should tell me what I’m doing wrong. We did not hear any arguments about the law; they only had one answer: ‘Because.‘ That is not the right attitude. We respect the country’s strategic partners and are ready for friendship and cooperation, but it should be mutual. These relations have reached a dead end and must be restarted. The Government of Georgia is taking concrete steps to deepen existing relations,“ Kaladze concluded.
Opposition MP Zurab Japaridze of the Girchi More Freedom/Coalition for Change party told the media that the visiting VIPs had understood that “no reset can happen until the Russian law is withdrawn and until the anti-Western propaganda is stopped.“
“That Ivanishvili himself did not meet them is telling,“ Japaridze said. “But the fact that the senators themselves underlined this shows that everything has been revealed, that they know exactly who is managing the processes in this country, who is the source of all these problems.”
