Georgian Parliament official: we hope that under new US administration, Georgian-American relations will further deepen and flourish

Nikoloz Samkharadze, the chair of the foreign relations committee of the Parliament of Georgia, on Thursday expressed hope that Georgian-American relations would deepen and flourish further under the new United States administration.

In his speech at the Alliance of Sovereign Nations conference, Samkharadze noted that the Georgian dream was to have full sovereignty over the country.

“It is a great honor and pleasure to be here. I am the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, and I represent the ruling party - Georgian Dream”, he said.

“We are a partially occupied country - 20% of our territory is occupied by the Russian Federation - so our dream is to restore territorial integrity and ensure the economic well-being of our people. Accordingly, we believe that the sovereignty of the people and sovereign decisions must be respected”, Samkharadze continued.

“We have been victims of foreign interference in our elections and internal affairs. When I talk about foreign interference, I do not mean only the Russian Federation; I also mean non-governmental organizations funded from the US and Europe, which in practice worked to undermine the legitimacy of democratically elected authorities and to encourage unrest, violence, and ultimately the violent overthrow of the government”, he said.

“Previous panel participants noted that their children suffer harassment because of their views. In the Georgian delegation, we have a female politician who also became a victim of attacks along with her children when leftist radicals targeted her because of her opinions”, Samkharadze noted.

He further added that it was a very serious threat faced by all, and, unfortunately, it had been experienced in Georgia.

“Why am I here? With the election of the new administration, we have great hope because we are ideologically aligned. Our values - Christian and traditional values - are the foundation of our domestic and foreign policy. Accordingly, we hope that under the new administration, firstly, Georgian-American relations will deepen and flourish even further, and secondly, we will stand together to defend sovereignty, democracy, freedom of speech, and elections in our countries”, Samkharadze concluded.