Georgian PM express Gov’t’s desire to restore Georgia-US strategic partnership from clean slate, with concrete roadmap

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Friday expressed desire to restore the strategic partnership with the United States from a clean slate, with a concrete roadmap.

In his annual address to the Georgian Parliament, Kobakhidze noted that the recent processes give optimism that the Georgia-US strategic partnership would be restored.

“Restoring the strategic partnership with the United States is very important for us. We have made a number of public statements in this regard, including myself personally. Our desire is to restore the strategic partnership with the United States from a clean slate and with a specific roadmap. The processes that have developed recently maintain our optimism that the strategic partnership will be restored”, the PM said.

“I personally had a phone call with [US] Secretary of State [Marco] Rubio and we had a very friendly, interesting conversation about bilateral cooperation. After that, a technical visit from the [US] State Department took place in Georgia. These processes maintain our optimism regarding the restoration of the strategic partnership with the United States”, he continued.

Kobakhidze also highlighted challenging relations with the European Union, saying the government was doing its best to properly fulfill the obligations outlined by the Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA).

“During the reporting period, we have made fundamental progress in this regard. 80 percent of Georgia's commitments to the European Union have already been fulfilled, including 81 percent of the commitments directly from the Association Agreement. This shows our approach to the issue. Despite the unfair approach, there are many challenges, we consistently continue to fulfill the commitments we have made to the European Union”, he stressed.

The Government head also emphasised the importance of the non-recognition policy, which, in his opinion, Georgia had been successfully implementing during the reporting period, and the indicator of this success was the relevant figures, which did not change in a negative direction.

“Additionally, we continue to pursue a pragmatic policy, and our task is, of course, to peacefully resolve the conflict between Georgia and Russia, and of course, the red line here is related to the restoration of territorial integrity. Georgia will continue to pursue a pragmatic policy in this direction in the future”, he concluded.