Days after meeting Georgia’s Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili, US Ambassador Robin Dunnigan met Georgia’s fifth President, Salome Zourabichvili, a fierce opponent of the ruling party. Meanwhile, the Georgian government and its media reported on a short exchange between Botchorishvili and the US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, at a conference in India.
The issue of meetings between Western politicians and diplomats with ruling party representatives gained heightened attention following last year’s contested parliamentary elections in Georgia, after which relations between Tbilisi and many of its international partners, including the US, noticeably deteriorated.
A photo of the meeting between Zourabichvili and Dunnigan was shared on social media Monday evening, without details of their conversation. The US Embassy has yet to release any information about the meeting.
Representative Joe Wilson, one of the harshest critics of Georgian Dream from the US Republican Party, welcomed the meeting between Zourabichvili and Dunnigan on X. He referred to Zourabichvili as a ‘legitimate president’ and added that ‘the only way forward is free and fair elections’ in Georgia.
Meanwhile, the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted in its social media about a meeting between Botchorishvili and a top US intelligence official during the Raisina Dialogue international conference in New Delhi, India.
The Ministry released only one photo showing Botchorishvili and Gabbard standing and presumably talking in a hall, surrounded by other conference participants. It remains unknown how long the conversation lasted or what it was about.
The pro-government TV channel Imedi also covered the story, reporting a ‘brief audience’ between the two, though it did not specify any details.
Gabbard herself has not mentioned or acknowledged the meeting on any public platforms.
A few days earlier, the US Embassy and the Georgian MFA reported about the meeting between the minister and US Ambassador Dunnigan.
Unlike the silence that followed Dunnigan’s meeting with Zourabichvili, the embassy stated in its short statement after the meeting with Botchorishvili that Dunnigan had outlined ‘President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio’s top priorities and steps that Georgia can take to demonstrate its seriousness about improving its relationship with the US’.
In its own readout of the meeting, Georgia’s MFA said ‘the agenda of cooperation between Georgia and the US was discussed at the meeting, noting that the partnership of the two countries, which is based on common values and interests, requires positive dynamics, which the Georgian government has repeatedly confirmed’.
It was the first formal meeting of this kind since last October’s elections in Georgia, official results of which have been widely criticised, including by the US, but the Biden administration fell short of explicitly declaring the election to be illegitimate.
Georgian Dream has repeatedly expressed hope that relations would improve under the Trump administration. However, apart from the meeting between Dunnigan and Botchorishvili, no clear signs of this have emerged so far.
At the same time, a bipartisan group of US senators reintroduced the MEGOBARI Act in the Senate earlier this week, an act that would mandate further sanctions against Georgian officials and reaffirm support for Georgian media and civil society.
Another bill, the Georgian Nightmare Non-Recognition Act, was introduced by Wilson in January 2025. The legislation would prohibit the recognition or normalisation of relations ‘with any government of Georgia that is led by (Georgian Dream honorary founder) Bidzina Ivanishvili or any proxies due to the Ivanishvili regime’s ongoing crimes against the Georgian people’.
Neither bill has been held for an official vote.
Nate Ostiller
