Kobakhidze meets with Belarusian, Chinese ambassadors as Georgian Dream escalates anti-EU rhetoric
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has met with Belarusian Ambassador Mikalai Rahashchuk and Chinese Ambassador Zhou Qian, holding the two meetings within several hours of each other. The talks come as Georgian Dream continues to escalate its anti-EU rhetoric.
Kobakhidze held both meetings on 13 October, with both ambassadors delivering congratulatory messages from their respective governments on the ruling Georgian Dream party’s victory in the municipal elections earlier this month.
The Monday meeting was the fifth time that Kobakhidze had met with the Chinese ambassador over the past year.
The official Georgian readouts of both meetings were sparse on details, but highlighted economic cooperation. The readout of Kobakhidze’s meeting with Rahashchuk noted that the prime minister had thanked the ambassador for ‘Belarus’ support of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity’, a comment that was quickly noted on social media in Georgia.
Although Belarus does not recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka visited Abkhazia in 2022, drawing condemnation from Tbilisi.
Earlier in 2025, Lukashenka praised the ‘traditions of friendship and mutual respect between Belarus and Georgia’, which he said ‘serve as a solid foundation for the resumption of full-fledged comprehensive cooperation between our countries’.
‘You know very well that our doors have always been open and are open to you. Between Georgia and [Belarus] there are absolutely no problems’, Lukashenka said at the time, during a reception of new ambassadors in Minsk.
Nate Ostiller
