The White House has disinvited Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Georgia’s delegation from a reception for world leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
On Wednesday, the US Embassy in Georgia told local media that Kobakhidze’s invitation to the reception was revoked due to his government’s anti-democratic actions, misinformation, and negative rhetoric about the US and the West.
Voice of America reported the snub on Tuesday, citing anonymous sources including a senior White House official and member of Congress as saying that Kobakhidze was initially invited to the reception, but was later removed from the guest list.
The reception is scheduled to take place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Wednesday evening.
They reported that the administration also ‘refused all meetings with the Georgian delegation, and Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Advisor, also refused to meet with Prime Minister Kobakhidze’.
Their sources cited the Georgian government’s ‘anti-democratic behaviour’ for the disinvitation, including the adoption of the foreign agent law, the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s classification of Transparency International Georgia an entity ‘with a declared electoral goal’, as well as statements made by the ruling Georgian Dream party and its satellite groups about banning opposition parties.
Voice of America reported that the ‘last communication’ between Washington and Tbilisi did not give Biden’s administration ‘hope that Tbilisi will change its course’.
‘On the contrary, the steps of the Georgian government convince the administration that it is determined to ignore the Euro-Atlantic integration of Georgia and the will of the Georgian people’.
The White House organises annual receptions for world leaders during the General Assembly’s sessions.
‘They should learn hospitality from the Georgian people’
Kobakhidze’s office confirmed to Voice of America that his invitation to the reception had been withdrawn, but stated that Kobakhidze was not scheduled to meet with Sullivan.
Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili commented on the disinvitation on Wednesday, telling reporters that it was ‘not serious’, and that the US was giving the opposition a ‘topic to talk about’.
‘Unfortunately, this is also one of the manifestations of interference in the internal politics of the country’, he claimed. ‘For so many years, the American administration has been calling us a strategic partner, and they should at least learn hospitality from the Georgian people’.
Guram Macharashvili, a member of Georgian Dream’s parliamentary majority, suggested that it was ‘possible’ that Biden was ‘completely unaware’ that Kobakhidze was disinvited from the reception, and that ‘it seems that foreign forces’ were behind the decision.
In mid-September, Kobakhidze similarly stated that he believed Biden’s administration was ‘influenced’ by ‘certain forces’ to impose sanctions on Georgian nationals.
At the time, Kobakhidze was remarking on the US’ sanctioning of two law enforcement officials — the head of the Interior Ministry’s Special Tasks Department Zviad (Khareba) Kharazishvili, and his deputy, Mileri Lagazauri — in addition to the co-founders of the far-right group and TV channel Alt Info, Konstantine Morgoshia and Zurab Makharadze.
Washington has also imposed travel sanctions on more than 60 Georgian individuals and their family members ‘responsible for, or complicit in, undermining democracy in Georgia’.
This tranche was the first of their kind to hit Georgian nationals as Georgian–US relations continue to plummet as a result of the government’s anti-Western rhetoric and its adoption of the controversial foreign agent law.
On 20 September, Voice of America also cited anonymous US government sources as saying that the US Treasury and State Departments have been leading the development of a package of sanctions against Georgian Dream founder and honorary chair Bidzina Ivanishvili, which they are considering imposing ‘in the near future’.
[Read more: US sanctions four Georgian security officials and far-right extremists for ‘serious human rights abuses’]
