Kakha Kaladze, the secretary-general of Georgia’s ruling party “Georgian Dream ” said the party cannot sacrifice national interest for friendly relations with the United States of America. Kakha Kaladze also revealed the government’s plan to review bilateral ties with USA without compromising Georgia’s interests.
Kakha Kaladze is the present mayor of the capital city Tbilisi, whose reaction to Georgia-US relations came today against the backdrop of US sanctions against some ministers of Georgia.
It is to be noted that the USA’s Department of the Treasury announced the sanctions . The USA imposed sanctions against Zviad Kharazishvili, the Chief of the Georgian Interior Ministry’s Special Task Department.
At the same time the USA also imposed sanctions against his Deputy, Mileri Lagazauri. As per USA official the decision has been taken for their involvement in human rights violations while controlling the protestors.
The protesters were demanding the revocation of controversial foreign agent law. In his statement Secretary-General Kaladze added that “such kind of specific direction from an important partner country which includes the release of some dangerous criminal from jail cannot be accepted.”
According to Kaladze the Georgia always want excellent and stable relations with the United States of America. However when a strategic partner country tries to mislead the Georgian public, it cannot be easily digested. Moreover it is also unacceptable that a partner country comments on foreign agents’ law as Russian law.
I have repeated many times on behalf of our government that “Georgia always wants to maintain good strategic partnerships with the USA, but this should not be at the cost of national interest in any case.”
It is also worth mentioning that the Speaker of Parliament has already condemned the sanction. As per the speaker Georgia wants partner, not a guardian who dictates to us even in internal matters. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze expressed a similar view.
The Prime Minister said it is unfortunate that sanctions were imposed against law enforcement officials who fought Russia in the 2008 war. Moreover this is an insult to our state and the people of Georgia specifically.
