Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has denied a statement made by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggesting that Georgia had asked Washington what it would take to reset relations.
Rubio had made the remark in response to a question from Republican Congressperson Joe Wilson, who sharply criticised Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party, referring to it as pro-Iranian and backed by China.
‘The pro-Iranian regime and the Chinese Communist Party supported the Georgian Dream government which is illegitimate’, Wilson said. ‘With that in mind, they’re facilitating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and evading sanctions to Tehran. What do you believe should be done to address the rapidly expanding radicalisation promoted by the Georgian Dream government in the republic of Georgia?’.
In response, Rubio said that Wilson had ‘outlined a pre-existing concern’, but noted that Georgian Dream had made ‘some steps indicating to us that they want to improve the relations with the United States’.
‘We’ve outlined to them what that would take, what that would require. We’ve received some positive responses, and so our hope is that we can see a change of trajectory in the case of Georgia from where it is today’, Rubio said.
‘Hopefully we can build on that basis and perhaps change the trajectory, not just of our relationship with Georgia but of their behaviour’, he continued.
On Thursday, however, Kobakhidze denied that his administration had asked the US what it could do to improve relations. When asked by reporters if he thought Rubio was lying, Kobakhidze responded: ‘What does lying have to do with it? When a person speaks, they may say something based on their own interpretation’.
‘Georgia is not a school student who can be picked apart in the fall and asked to be corrected. Georgia is a worthy sovereign state and we have clearly stated this everywhere’, he continued, according to RFE/RL.
Asked about Rubio’s reference to Georgia’s ‘trajectory’, Kobakhidze said that the ‘American administration itself is talking to China, saying that it does everything to deepen relations with China’.
While relations between Georgia and the US have sharply deteriorated amidst the Georgian authorities’ adoption of restrictive laws, the disputed 2024 parliamentary elections, and police violence against anti-government demonstrators, Georgia received two separate State Department delegations in May.
The last such visit saw Kobakhidze meeting with Special Assistant to the US Secretary of State Charles Yockey and the Director of the Office for Russian and Caucasian Affairs, Peter Andreoli.
