Parliament Speaker highlights inconsistency between declared policies of Trump’s administration and actions of certain donor-funded NGOs, political groups in Georgia

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Monday expressed concerns over the inconsistency between the declared policies of the US President Donald Trump’s administration and the actions of certain donor-funded NGOs and political groups in Georgia.

Papuashvili’s comment followed the statement of Elon Musk, who on Sunday said that “with regards to the United States Agency for International Development stuff, I went over it with [the President Trump] in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down”.

In his remarks, Papuashvili claimed that there was an ongoing attempt to destabilise the country and change the Government through non-democratic means.

“The pace, the clarity, the directness that we are seeing now in reviewing foreign aid policies is encouraging. At the same time, I hope that, beyond transparency, the relevant United States authorities will investigate USAID’s role in the dissemination of false parallel vote tabulation results during the 2020 [parliamentary] elections”, the Speaker said.

He noted that the investigation should determine the intent behind such actions, as the spread of false PVT was allegedly used to incite unrest by the opposition and affiliated NGOs.

“When it later became clear that a USAID donor was aware of this and deliberately concealed it - not just from the Government but also from journalists and the general public - an investigation is necessary to uncover the motives behind these actions,” he added.

While acknowledging recent developments in US foreign aid policies, Papuashvili questioned why no significant changes were visible on the ground. He pointed to a recent protest by the radical opposition as evidence that destabilisation efforts continue.

“The fact remains that there is a discrepancy between the stated policies of President Trump and his administration and the reality we observe here, where certain donor-funded NGOs and political groups are escalating their attempts to create chaos and undermine law and order”, Papuashvili said.

“We hope that this clarity will emerge and that what we see in public, sharp and clear statements from President Trump's administration will be put into practice by American donors, the US Embassy, ​​and all institutions related to the US budget and administration”, he concluded.